OSAKA -- Sanyo Electric Co.'s newly appointed president said Friday that he will do his utmost to recover public confidence in the company.

Yukinori Kuwano, 59, senior managing director, was appointed during a board meeting earlier in the day to serve as president.

He will assume the post on Wednesday, replacing Sadao Kondo, who offered his resignation over a scandal involving a subsidiary's sale of defective solar cell systems.

At a news conference, which was also attended by Chairman Satoshi Iue, who has kept his position, Kuwano said that he will strengthen transparency, compliance and accountability within the company.

"What is required now is to conduct business from the viewpoint of customers," Kuwano said.

A world-renowned researcher in the field of solar power generation, Kuwano contributed to commercializing amorphous solar cells in the early 1980s.

As the news conference took place after the revelation that Sanyo had another defective product -- refrigerators -- on its hands, reporters directed their questions to Iue, asking whether such problems are rooted within the company.

Although Sanyo has received complaints from consumers about refrigerator doors coming off their hinges since 1996, the company went public with the information for the first time Friday.

As a measure against such defects, Sanyo will strengthen its in-house inspection system, Iue said.