By James Wells

SYDNEY: NEC will announce this afternoon that it will be closing its Sydney offices, making staff redundant and leaving the consumer retail market in Australia while retaining a commitment to its business systems division.

With this decision, NEC would follow other brands leaving the highly competitive flat panel television market including Fujitsu, Philips and Hitachi.

Without NEC in the television market, it further reduces the number of players and increases the dominance of ‘the big four’ – Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic who hold between 15 and 25 per cent share of the sector and provides additional breathing space for other smaller Japanese players such as Sharp, Pioneer and Toshiba.

Products within the NEC range that are expected to be discontinued include: LCD TVs, Plasma TVs, set top boxes, DVD players and recorders, refrigeration, washing machines, microwaves and air conditioning.

More information will be available on Current.com.au this afternoon.