August 9, 2007 -- Semp Toshiba, known as a manufacturer of TV sets, radios and DVD readers would start the local manufacturing of white line appliances, cellular handsets and GPS devices, as announced by president Afonso Hennel and the Toshiba CEO Atsutoshi Nishida. Semp Toshiba is a 60/40 joint venture which is completing 60 years of operations. The company has en eye in the white line appliances sales that expanded by 13,74% in 2006, compared with a 9,59% grow of the brown line. At this point Afonso is seeking an adequate location to host a new appliances plant while the cellular handsets and GPS would use one the existing facilities at Manaus, Sao Paulo or Salvador. Semp Toshiba is to end 2007 with sales of above the R$2.2bil posted in 2006 an year with TVs demand pushed by the World Cup. Hennel estimates the company to expand by 100% within the next 5 - 6 years, thanks to the informatics line (desktop, notebooks) that should account for 30% of the sales in 2007 from 20% in 2006.
Source: Valor Economico
Source: Factiva
