Sharp Canada Pulling out of Consumer Retail Sales

Sharp Electronics Canada is pulling the plug on it’s consumer retail sales for Aquos LCD-TVs in Canada.

I spoke to a couple distributors this morning who confirmed that Sharp is ceasing retail sales effective April 1st, 2015 and stock is limited to what they have on hand in their warehouse.

John Thomson of Wifi-hifi Magazine reports the following:

“WiFi HiFi has received official confirmation from Sharp Electronics of Canada that the brand will cease the marketing of Sharp AQUOS LCD-TVs to the retail channel effective April 1, 2015.

What follows is a word for word letter sent to us by Sharp. Company executives have relayed this information to Sharp employees.”

Carmine Cinerari president of Sharp Canada states “This decision was made in the context of extremely challenging business conditions in the Canadian retail CE segment and as part our our regular local mid-term planning process”

While Sharp is a small player in the whole TV market, they are the leader in Large Format 70-90″ LCD/LED Displays and will truly be missed.  Two of my favourite large format HDTV’s are the Sharp Quattron Plus LC-80UQ17U and LC-60UQ17U.  These TVs have impressive picture quality and the vast majority of my customers have preferred the Sharp picture to similar TVs from Samsung, Sony and LG.

While Sharp is pulling out of retail in Canada they still will be selling their commercial panels and will support and warranty all products sold.

Sharp will be missed, especially the 80″ TV size where there are few competitive alternatives.  Samsung, LG, Vizio and Sony will fill the void left by Sharp, however the new sets offered by these manufacturers will be 4K and much more expensive than the current Sharp Quattron + lineup.   Sharp will continue to sell Quattron TVs U.S. so once stock runs out in Canada there will be the option to still buy Sharp from US retailers or perhaps Costco might bring some Sharp sets up from the US to sell in their Canadian stores.

The bottom line:  If you are in the market for a 70-90″ TV you may want to purchase one before retailers sell out of their stock.

Source: Wifi-hifi