Sharp said Tuesday that it will halt production at its factory for large liquid crystal display (LCD) television panels in the city of Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, by the end of September.
The major electronics maker, which continues to bleed red ink, hopes to prevent a further deterioration in its earnings by scaling back its slumping LCD business.
Sharp included measures to address its LCD business in its medium-term business plan released on Tuesday.
The Sakai plant is the only remaining production site for LCD TV panels in Japan.
Sakai Display Products, a Sharp subsidiary that operates the Sakai plant, will shift its operations to providing technical support to an Indian company and operating an artificial intelligence data center, according to the plan.
At a news conference, Sharp President and CEO Wu Po-hsuan said the company will make an announcement at an appropriate time regarding its ongoing talks with potential buyers of the Sakai plant.
Sharp plans to offer early retirement packages to affected employees, the details of which are yet to be decided.
On Tuesday, Sharp said it had a consolidated net loss of ¥149.9 billion ($959 million) in fiscal 2023, which ended in March, remaining in the red for a second consecutive year.
It logged a bigger net loss of ¥260.8 billion in fiscal 2022.
The firm’s fiscal 2023 group sales fell 8.9% year on year to ¥2.32 trillion, while its operating loss totaled ¥20.3 billion, compared with the preceding year’s loss of ¥25.7 billion.
Sharp expects to secure a net profit of ¥5 billion in fiscal 2024.
At the news conference, Wu vowed to bring Sharp back to profitability in the current fiscal year, saying the company needs to establish a sustainable profit structure.