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TCL Buys Sanyo Tijuana Factory

Corona, Calif. – TCL North America said Thursday that it will acquire Sanyo’s TV assembly factory in Tijuana, Mexico for the final assembly of products to be sold in the North American market.

Both parties signed an assets acquisition agreement for the deal on March 31st. TCL Multimedia will pay a total of $15.22 million for the plant, land and equipment.

According to a company spokesman, the deal will allow TCL, which is a Chinese company known as “the third largest HDTV brand in the world,” to assemble products for North America locally, shortening the time and distance to market, while avoiding high tariff costs, under NAFTA rules.

In a statement TCL said the factory deal will help it “meet the increased demand for TCL branded TVs in North America and to continue to handle OEM business for other leading TV brands.”

The news also comes 24 hours after the company revealed an agreement to use D&H Distribution to handle sales and distribution of the company’s full product line to many retailers, and a few weeks since former Toshiba sales VP Chris Larson was named TCL North America’s sales and marketing VP.

“As one of the few vertically integrated TV brands in the industry, TCL has been building up its capabilities throughout the entire supply chain to put it in position to become a leader in the US market,” said Michelle Mao, TCL North America president.   “This acquisition assures our ability to meet retailer demand and gives us a local option to build TVs that allows us to react quickly to market demand and continue to offer a high quality product at a great value.”

Sanyo’s former Tijuana factory is said to have the capacity to produce more than 1.5 million HDTVs annually, allowing TCL to utilize its growing supply of panels from China Star Optoelectronics in the North American market.

That “state of the art” panel factory began production in 2011, and is a joint venture operation between TCL and Samsung, currently producing over 20 million panels annually, TCL said.

Among TCL’s signature products for 2014 will be a line of TCL Roku TVs, due to ship in the second half of the year.

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