Japanese electronics firm Sanyo is to cut around 14,000 jobs, or 15% of its workforce, in a sweeping restructuring, and is set to move into new products.

Sanyo said it would close or sell off 20% its factories in Japan, where more than a third of its workforce is based.

It aims to shave costs by 70bn yen ($626m; £355m) and has set aside a 90bn yen budget for restructuring costs.

Loss-making Sanyo plans to diversify from digital cameras and mobile phones into a new range of eco-friendly items.

Solar panels and rechargeable batteries are among the products it wants to start making.

Digital disappointment

Last week it reported that weak sales of digital cameras and mobile phones had pushed losses to 171.54bn yen ($1.55bn; £860m) in the year to March 2005.

The restructuring programme, and the job cuts, will be spread across three years.

Sanyo is not the only electronics firm to suffer from falling prices for mobile phones, digital cameras, and the computer chips that operate them.

Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Hitachi have all suffered financial pain in their core electronics and chip-making businesses.

Sanyo's revamp will be guided by its newly appointed chief executive Tomoyo Nonaka, a former TV anchorwoman with little experience in the electronics industry, and its new president, Toshimasa Iue, a member of Sanyo's founding family.

The company aims to restore profit margins to 5% in its 2007 financial year, and cut its debts by 600bn yen.

Sanyo is pushing the eco-friendly theme to the fore in its restructuring, saying it wants "symbiotic evolution" of the company to "restore a beautiful earth to the children of the future".

Its investors certainly appear to like the idea of the financial shake-up.

Sanyo's shares have risen every day since Friday, when news of the restructuring leaked out. The shares were up 1.3% after Tuesday's announcement.