Sharp plans to give extra edge to UK performance
Vendor's first UK managing director pledges to reignite brand with localisation
Sharp has underachieved in the UK and stagnated in certain areas, according to the vendor's new UK managing director.
Paul Molyneux, who became the firm's first UK managing director just five weeks ago, said the vendor is hoping localisation will help to reignite the brand.
"For the first time we have a European chief executive [Hans Kleis] and a UK managing director. To drive the business forward, the Japanese management realised we needed more local managers in place. Half of Sharp's business is outside Japan, but we have underachieved in those regions," Molyneux said.
"Kleis is building a European structure in terms of business units and support because we have been behind the curve with that, too."
Molyneux said he is looking "long and hard" at the UK business's distribution strategy.
"At the moment it is very much product-specific. We want more brand awareness," he said.
He added that Sharp is in discussions with distributor Micro P for its projectors, although nothing is confirmed yet.
"In the IT space we are underperforming as a brand, and we are looking to increase awareness through the channel. We need to develop partnerships because even in the mainline IT distributors we have no major presence.
"As the business-to-business and consumer markets become less black and white, I don't think the channel can be ignored."
Jason Harcourt, senior analyst at Context, said Sharp could face a challenge. "We don't see a lot of it in market share reports. Although it is still big in copiers, in the printer market it's very different," he said.
"The vendor will find it tough, even though it has a relatively strong brand. It really needs to develop this and get some serious partners on board."