LEDs drive revenue growth at Philips Lighting

Packaged LEDs and solid-state lighting products are proving to be a strong revenue driver at Royal Philips Electronics, pushing the giant company’s lighting business back onto a solid growth curve in the first quarter of the year. Philips reported that, overall, its first quarter sales of €5.26 billion ($7.48 billion) were up 6% on the same period last year, with its lighting division contributing €1.90 billion to that total after rising by a similar amount. The company was keen to highlight the spin-off of its television business into a joint venture in its latest investor call - something that Philips has been working on for several quarters. But over the past 12 months, sales of packaged LEDs have been an impressive source of revenue growth. Philips said that LED components accounted for 7% of its lighting division’s total revenues of €7.6 billion over that period - equivalent to about €530 million.