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EXCLUSIVE: Sharp Exit, Shocks OZ Staff, Cost Cutting Move

Sharp Staff in Australia are up in arms after they were told yesterday that the Company is set to exit their Blacktown HQ with long time employees told that they will have to pay the cost of travelling to new offices in North Ryde, the move has been made in an effort to cut costs at the struggling Company. 

The struggling Japanese Company has been operating from a massive warehouse complex in Blacktown that goes back to the days when Sharp was a household name selling millions of dollars’ worth of TV’s and appliances into the Australian market.

Of late sales in their consumer electronics business have slumped from close to $100 million in 2010 to less than $30M in 2016.
One employee told ChannelNews that the move will “cost” Sharp employees who will be forced to do a round trip of over 50klm a day between Blacktown and North Ryde.

Some employees who have worked for the Company for more than 20 years claim that they will be force to drive, “kilometres to work” pay tolls and wear the costs of the move.

One employee said “I don’t know whether this is a cynical move to get out of paying redundancy to employees who have worked at the Company for decades”.

Another employee added “We could end up having to also pay for parking in North Ryde and this could cost an additional $350 to $500 a month”.

Yesterday we revealed that Sharp Australia management were so desperate to prop up TV sales at JB Hi Fi that they got staff to visit JB Hi Fi stores buy a TV and then claim a 100% refund.

The move that was initiated by Joe Constantino the former Sales & Marketing Director and now Deputy Managing Director backfired with the Company announcing earlier this year that they were exiting the TV market due to poor sales.
Another initiative that appears to have back fired was the sacking of long time sharp agents, and several employees last year, in favour of direct merchandisers and training staff for retailers.

ChannelNews has been told by one insider that since September of 2015 the merchandising and training managers appointed for WA and South Australia have both quit and that the new employees hired less than two months ago have also quit.
Harvey Norman franchisees have told ChannelNews that since the restructure the Company is seeing less of their Sharp representatives “than ever before” when the Company employed external agents.

At this stage it is not known whether Sharp will stay in the appliance business in Australia due to falling sales.

Constantino has failed to comment for this story. Staff at Sharp have been sent an email warning them about talking to ChannelNews.



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