LED lighting company Cree bucks economic downturn with record quarterly earnings

August 24, 2009--Cree (Durham, NC), a market leader in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, announced record revenue of $148.1 million for its fourth quarter (Q4) of fiscal 2009, ended June 28, 2009, which represents a 9% increase compared to revenue of $135.9 million reported for its fiscal Q4 last year and a 13% increase compared to the fiscal Q3 of 2009.

For fiscal year 2009, Cree reported revenue of $567.3 million, which represents a 15% increase compared to revenue of $493.3 million for fiscal 2008. Cree generated $177.9 million of operating cash flow and $122.6 million of free cash flow during fiscal 2009. Earlier this year, Cree hosted an LED Lighting Institute with RPI.

"Our strong Q4 results were an outstanding finish to a very good year and reflect the success of our strategy to drive growth in LEDs and LED lighting applications," said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO. "Entering fiscal 2010, our Q1 backlog is very strong as we see growing demand across our LED product lines. We are well positioned to benefit from the worldwide growth in LED lighting. As such, we continue to invest in the new products, channels and technical support needed to accelerate the LED lighting revolution."

For more information, go to www.cree.com.

--Posted by Gail Overton, [email protected]; www.laserfocusworld.com.