JVC to shift LCD TV production overseas

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Victor Co of Japan will stop making liquid crystal display televisions in Japan and shift production overseas in a bid to raise profitability. After shifting production overseas, JVC said it will retreat from mass-market models for the Japanese market and focus on large high-profit LCD TVs with screen sizes of 42 inches and larger.

Through such measures, the company aims at bringing its loss-making domestic TV operations to break even in fiscal 2009. In fiscal 2007, which ended in March, the operating loss from the TV business is believed to have totaled several billions of yen.

Specifically, JVC will stop making LCD TVs at its plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, as early as this summer. All production will be moved to its plant in Thailand, the company said.

The company projects shipments of around 35,000 LCD TVs for the current fiscal year to March 2009, down from about 300,000 units in the previous year, with its focus on large-screen products which it plans to sell together with speakers and other devices as home theater systems.