Sharp
“Make products that others want to imitate”, this is the phrase coined by the Sharp founder Tokuji Hayakawa to embody the concept behind the brand. Sharp is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Sakai-ku, Osaka Prefecture, which designs and manufactures electronic products. They strive to innovatively bring effective and unprecedented technologies to the market. To this modern day, Sharp still occupies a large area of the industry, employing more than 50,000 people worldwide. Since 2016 it has been majority owned by the Taiwan-based Foxconn Group and has manufacturers in China and the United States.
The history of Sharp began in 1912. Tokuji Hayakawa first invented the snap belt buckle and three years later brought the Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil to the market, one of the first internationally available mechanical pencils. In the years to come, the brand modernised and ventured into new projects, for example in 1971 Sharp entered the photocopier business.
Sharp photocopiers deliver seamless functionality for any customer, from the home office, small/medium-sized businesses and larger enterprises. The photocopiers are versatile, offering black and white or colour, printing, scanning and faxing, with a range of finishing options. Sharp prioritises security, offering features such as scan-to-email, to quickly and safely digitalise paper workflows. Sharp tends to offer extra value for money, compared to other companies such as Canon, and critics have suggested that they have a lower energy consumption too, using an automatic shutdown system.