Sanyo Manufacturing Corp. at Forrest City said Tuesday that it would cease all production and assembly operations by fall.
The company, a division of Sanyo TV International, employs about 250 at the Forrest City plant. In February, more than 300 employees were laid off.
Layoffs are anticipated to begin on or about September and conclude sometime in October, according to a company news release.
Sanyo officials expect to maintain 75-100 employees after the layoffs are complete as Forrest City is the headquarters for the global television business of Sanyo TV International. The company also will maintain warehouse and distribution operations at Forrest City as well as some corporate functions such as engineering, sales and customer service.
Sanyo has been in Forrest City since 1976, producing cathode ray (picture tube) televisions. It also operates a TV production plant in Tijuana, Mexico that makes flat screen TVs.
“The market has seen a dramatic change in the way consumers have been buying television sets,” the company news release said.
“Customer demand is just not there,” Joe Keeton, vice president of operations at the plant, told ArkansasBusiness.com. “Demand fell off much quicker than anyone expected.”
Demand has been shifting towards the flat panel televisions will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. A big reason for the change is the dramatic drop in price of flat panel display sets, liquid crystal display and plasma TVs.
Sanyo expects only enough orders to keep one of five Forrest City assembly lines in operation, but only through the end of October, the company said.
Keeping the Sanyo plant in Forrest City has long been a project of Arkansas governors.
One of the stories in former President’s Bill Clinton’s book, “My Life,” talks about a time when Clinton was governor that Sanyo was going to close its Forrest City plant and send the work overseas where labor was cheaper.
Clinton flew to Japan and persuaded the president of Sanyo to stay in Arkansas if a major U.S. retailer would sell Sanyo television sets. At the time the book was published, the Forrest City plant was the only remaining U.S. plant producing televisions.
And last year, Mike Huckabee devoted part of his trip to the Pacific Rim to meeting with Sanyo officials.
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