| Philips Opens First Luxeon® Power LED Production Facility In Asia |
| Singapore – Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG, AEX:PHI) announced today the opening of its first LUXEON high power LED production facility outside of Silicon Valley. This new facility will extend Philips Lighting’s LED leadership, while accelerating the growth of the solid state lighting industry. Today’s official opening marks that the site has become operational in less than a year since the company’ site selection was finalized. High volume production for the LUXEON range of LEDs began in Q1 2007 with a workforce of 150 employees. This workforce will expand to 900 employees when the facility is operating at full capacity. |
| The opening is part of Philips Lighting’s strategy to strengthen its leadership position in the fast growing and rapidly emerging power LED market. LUXEON LEDs are used in city beautification lighting, LCD displays, camera flash for mobile phones, automotive applications and various other applications. |
| Theo van Deursen, CEO of Philips Lighting and member of Philips’ Board of Management, comments: “As our industry shifts towards solid state lighting, we have done EUR 2 billion in strategic acquisitions to establish a leadership position in Solid-State Lighting across the value chain from a component level with Lumileds to delivering total solutions with Color Kinetics. This new facility in Singapore will not only double the production capacity of our LUXEON power LEDs, it will also strengthen our number one position in this field, and fuel our growth ambitions in lighting that we outlined in Philips Vision 2010.” |
| Philips Lighting is focusing on the power LED market, which is expected to grow strongly over the coming years. The long-lasting LUXEON® range of power LEDs matches the brightness of conventional light sources and for the first time, will make it possible to replace incandescent, halogen and fluorescent bulbs in many products with smaller, longer-lasting and more energy efficient LEDs. |
| Welcoming the new investment by Philips, Mr Lim Siong Guan, Chairman of Singapore Economic Development Board, said: “Philips Lumileds is a leader in LED lighting, an environmentally sound application which meets the needs of energy and climate concerns. We are very pleased to be chosen in their expansion strategy to reinforce their complex manufacturing presence here.” |
| Paul Peeters, Chairman and CEO of Philips Electronics Singapore, said: “Singapore is the destination of choice for Philips’ first wafer fab facility outside Silicon Valley. The country’s well-established industry infrastructure offered us a necessary talent pool and supplier support network which enabled the smooth and quick set up of our facility. As one of the pioneer investors in Singapore, Philips’ activities have evolved in tandem with Singapore’s economic development. Our new Philips Lumileds high power LED facility represents yet another cutting-edge high value activity. We look forward to partnering with EDB to create a solid state lighting ecosystem here in Singapore, leveraging the country’s deep talent pool and core competency in advanced manufacturing.” |
| Solid-state lighting is seen as the biggest revolution in lighting technology since Thomas Edison invented the incandescent bulb. Although it has been a niche solution for general lighting markets in the past, the creation of white-light LEDs a few years ago has transformed its potential. Over time, solid-state lighting is expected to revolutionize the lighting industry. Philips Lighting’s applications can already be found in all kinds of applications, such as for shops, city beautification and in homes, enabling users to create atmospheres in the way that suits them best. |