Panasonic Begins Sanyo Dissolution, 10,000 Sanyo Workers To Go This Year

Panasonic, who recently laid off 22 staff in Australia and moved to outsourced selling is set to globally lay off 10,000 people, following the merging of Sanyo and Panasonic operations globally.It’s expected that the Australian market will not be affected by the global rationalisation following the recent cuts by Panasonic in Australia and the running of a streamlined operation by Sanyo Asia Pacific management (which is headquartered in Australia).

Sanyo is set to start negotiations with employees to offer early retirement packages, seeking volunteers from its headquarters and white goods unit. The expectation is that 200 jobs from three of its sales subsidiaries will be cut by next month.

Panasonic previously announced plans to reduce its workforce by 35,000 workers by 2012, and last year said that it would wind down and cease the Sanyo brand name in Australia by the end of March this year, giving retailers a one year grace to sell off exisiting stock.