Sharp Phils to double sales this year

MANILA, Philippines - Sharp Philippines Corp. is expecting to double its sales for this year as the company focuses on product innovation and customer care improvement.

Sharp Philippines president and general manager Juntaro Shimamoto said that they would like to double their P3-billion sales last year to P6 billion.

In terms of products, Shimamoto said they will be expanding their eco and environment-friendly line-up of products to include solar panels and LED lighting.

“LED lighting is an exciting new category for us, especially when we consider the fact that the Philippines has the highest electricity cost per kilowatt hour among the Southeast Asian countries,” Shimamoto said.

According to Shimamoto, electricity costs 30 percent more in the Philippines compared to the average of the Asian neighbors. He cited that the average cost of one kilowatt hour in Southeast Asia is 12 centavos while in the Philippines it is 18 centavos.

Shimamoto said that one LED lamp consumes 7.5 watts to operate while an incandescent bulb can require an average of 60 watts.

“If you consider that Sharp LED lamps can give you 80 percent energy savings compared to incandescent lamps, imagine how much you will save on electricity cost every month,” Shimamoto noted.

Likewise, Shimamoto said that solar technology is feasible in the Philippines in the near future. “Although solar technology is still not locally viable because of the cost, we in Sharp believes that solar power can be feasible alternative in the near future.”

He said that Sharp’s thin-film solar panel plant at Green Front Sakai allows to simplify production process to lower costs. “For this reason, the demand for thin film solar cells especially for use in large scale photovoltaic power generation, has been steady from all over the world. We hope to see the same thing happen here in the Philippines especially in remote areas without electricity,” Shimamoto said.

One local facility that uses Sharp solar panels is the country’s first solar farm operated by Sepalco in Cagayan.