Cree Inc., Durham, N.C., a maker of LED lighting products, reported a 31 percent increase in profits for its fiscal fourth quarter, beating Wall Street targets. For the fourth quarter, the company earned $8.4 million, compared with $6.4 million a year earlier.
Total revenue rose 22 percent to $135.9 million. LED sales grew 27 percent from the prior year.
“Q4 represented a strong finish to a very successful year,” said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO. “Revenue exceeded our previously announced guidance due to strong LED sales, which grew 11 percent sequentially and 27 percent from a year ago. We have executed our strategy to transform Cree into a broad-based LED company with chips, components and systems that are leading the LED lighting revolution. While we recognize that there is caution in the market about the global economic environment, we remain optimistic about the year ahead as the momentum continues to build for our new products and energy-efficient lighting.”
Cree’s product families include recessed LED down lights, lighting-class power LEDs, high-brightness LEDs, blue and green LED chips, power-switching devices and radio-frequency/wireless devices. Cree products have applications such as general illumination, backlighting, electronic signs and signals, variable-speed motors, and wireless communications.
According to an Aug. 8 article in the News Observer, Charlotte, N.C., Cree LEDs are lighting up the Beijing Olympics. In keeping with China’s push for futuristic technologies at the festivities, the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube buildings’ lights were built using more than 750,000 red, blue and green LED chips made at Cree’s factory in Durham.
In addition, Cree LEDs illuminate massive video boards in Beijing and TV kiosks throughout the Olympics complex. Cree last year bought a Chinese lighting company to expand its foothold in that country.