Sanyo cutting personnel by 50%

[truetone36]

Inn the past I've mentioned the Sanyo t.v. plant in Forrest City, AR. which is 20 miles from where I live. On the local news tonight it was announced that they are laying off 300 of the plant's 650 employees. The reason; the plant produces only CRT t.v.s and the market for these sets has declined dramatically in recent years as flat screen and plasma have become more affordable. They are going to begin production of non-CRT sets at this plant, possibly by spring. It's a little sad to see this happen. There's a chance that in the near future this plant could be shut down, and it's been there for almost 50 years ( it was a Warwick plant before Sanyo took over in '75).


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[Fisher-Dave]

Toshiba is also closing its doors here to. I worked there a few years in the early 90's making TV's and there was about a thousand people working at that time.This is a pretty small place so it'll really hurt the folks here as 1,000 jobs in these parts are not to be found.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Fisher-Dave

Toshiba is also closing its doors here to. I worked there a few years in the early 90's making TV's and there was about a thousand people working at that time.This is a pretty small place so it'll really hurt the folks here as 1,000 jobs in these parts are not to be found.

Toshiba already closed its USA TV assembly plant in January 2005. After that, all Toshiba CRT tube TVs are made by Orion (Sansui) in Thailand.

[bgadow]

It would be interesting (to me at least) to know some of the history behind Warwick. Neat that the same factory is still going, I didn't know that. Did Warwick not get its start until the fifties? Did they take over from someone else or was it an all new company?

[JCFitz]

Originally Posted by bgadow

It would be interesting (to me at least) to know some of the history behind Warwick. Neat that the same factory is still going, I didn't know that. Did Warwick not get its start until the fifties? Did they take over from someone else or was it an all new company?

I don't know their history but know they made some sets for Sears in the early 70s.My boss worked for Sears in the 70s and was told to condemn them if he could because they were so unreliable. Had a lot of intermittent problems.I can confirm they were a troublesome set for being solid state.We had a console model from 1974 and it had a problem about once a year until 1982 when my mom bought a Zenith which worked flawlessly for 10 years until lightning got it. My boss fixed the Zenith and sold it.I bet it's still going.It was in the late 90s.I saw it in the bedroom of the people that bought it when I was working on their satellite dish.The picture beat the pants off that Warwick.We thought it had a pretty good picture when it worked though.Strange that it had so many intermittent problems.The module interconnects were essentially the same as Sylvania used.My grandmother's 1975 Sylvania worked for years problem free.The Sylvania never had any intermittents in it's whole life.The sound was always crapping out on that Sears-Warwick tv.My stepfather used to hit it with his fist.I fixed the Sears-Warwick tv in the late 80s after it sat for about 5 years at my grandmother's.The tube had gotten gassy and went south pretty quick.So I put a Philco tube that was in the shop in it.It played better than it had for years.Thought the sound problem was licked.The guy that bought it at the auction said the sound crapped out a couple of times after he had it for a month or 2.I never went to look at it. All the Sears tvs I have seen from 1976 on up through the 70s were either Sanyo or Toshiba chassis so I assume 1974 or 1975 was the end of Warwick making sets for Sears.

[zenith2134]

Interesting stuff in this thread. I didnt know about Warwick either
All I can say is that Sanyo made some quality TV's in the middle-of-the market price range, in my experience. My uncle Pete has a 1983 19" tabletop Sanyo color set, no remote, which still gets daily use and has never needed any service. The last time I was over there, around 2 years ago, I actually took the back off and reset the rgb balance. He was shocked that I could make the picture look better. Well, this particular set had a very solid build, with a metal simulated wood cabinet and a metal reinforced chassis. It also had a control panel door on the front with metal hinges. While I was in there I cleaned out the UHF tuner, since he claimed it had no reception on uhf. You know I admire people who rely on NTSC terrestrial broadcasts, they may be the minority today, but it really is nice to see a crystal clear picture on a freshly maintenanced set, I'm sure all of you members know what I mean. It bothers me that many older TV's like this one will probably be dumped strictly because they will not comply with the HD standard in 2009. Well I suppose I should've posted this in a new thread, sry for the Hijack

[Keefla]

I own 2 Sanyo TV's, and know of 3 friends who also own Sanyos. Ranging in size from 19" to 32". All are over 10 years old and all are in perfect working order. I like Sanyo for the fact they are actually made in America (or were...hopefully still).

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Keefla

I own 2 Sanyo TV's, and know of 3 friends who also own Sanyos. Ranging in size from 19" to 32". All are over 10 years old and all are in perfect working order. I like Sanyo for the fact they are actually made in America (or were...hopefully still).

Yes, the only Made in USA Sanyo TV right now is the Sanyo 30" CRT HDTV at Wal-Mart for around $450. This will be the last Sanyo TV ever made in USA, so don't delay.

[Einar72]

My parents owned two Sears TV's as I grew up. Both were 23-inchers, one from '62, one from '67, our first UHF. Both ran pretty well, the '67 model was put out to pasture for a CTC-38 having seen no service calls. I have had two of their later tube color portables blow their flybacks in my face, though.

Sad to hear our foreign investors planning to cut and run. Their keeping otherwise doomed American factories going was a bright spot in the decline of industrial America. Now, does anyone know if the guts for these aforementioned sets were actually "made" here? I had to fix a Teknika recently, and when I opened it up, there actually was an RCA 27" jug from the good old USA inside. Seems to have been assembled in New Jersey (at least the corporate address was). However, the board, containing the majority of the production labor (read: paychecks) was a GoldStar, shipped ready-to-install from Korea.

[andy]

RCA (Thomson) made CRTs that went in a lot of TVs. I've seen them in Panasonic, JVC, and a few others.

[bgadow]

I wonder about Teknika. Back in the late 80s my girlfriend's parents had a 19" Teknika that looked Asian to me, kinda like those Emersons that all the discount stores used to carry. Then somewhere I saw that some of their sets were made by Wells-Gardner. I have a set-top remote control box (infared) which is Teknika, I can't recall where it was made but somewhere in Asia.

[Einar72]

The Teknika I worked on had a large plastic case with vertical perforated-metal speaker grilles down both front sides. There was sculpting inward before the lines went around the corners, giving them a Remington micro-screen kind of shape. Turned out the flyback was shorted, and my brother in-law didn't need it back bad enough, so I tossed it. They had used it as a nite-lite and the CRT was too mushy to save.

[yrly]

I could be wrong but I believe some of the other CRT Sanyo sets are also USA built. The HT30746 (current) might be the only HDTV being made here. Though I could swear Sony was building some LCD rear projections in PA. I had the current Sanyo's predecessor, the 30744, these had some sort of defect in which they'd lose the red colors so Sanyo basically replaced them with the latter 30746 (even out of warranty in some cases). I paid $281 for my 30744 (the price being the only real reason I bought it, really wouldn't have been my first choice for an HDTV, but it was for the kitchen so it wasn't that much of a concern), it was fixed under warranty, and developed problems again and rather than repair it again Sanyo replaced it with the latter. The latter is fairly similar. Its not the greatest 30 inch widescreen, its not the worst. It is however made in the USA. It gets a lot of use and so far the replacement has worked OK.

I do know these 30 inch widescreen Sanyos are using a Samsung picture tube and were in the previous model as well.

[jedo1507r]

I have a recent Sanyo, of course, a 13-incher with nearly nothing inside and made in Mexico. But the interesting thing is that the tube was made in Brazil. (Model DS13320, 2003 model) - kinda like those cheapo 14-inch Taiwanese monitors made back in the early 1990s.

Too bad about the downsizing. At least the plant doesn't have too many truckload thefts like the Tennessee Toshiba plant.

[KentTeffeteller]

Hi,

We have a USA made 1983-84 Sanyo remote 19" set. First year of the current logo. Still a daily watcher. Not even one service call. Fine picture, mediocre sound when loud. Just works! I love Sanyo's Build Quality right now. This set changed my opinion of them entirely!