Panasonic plans to increase LED lighting sales revenue to over 200 billion yen in fiscal 2015

　　Panasonic recently announced plans to increase the group's LED lighting business sales revenue to over 200 billion yen in fiscal 2015. The company will focus on boosting sales in the Japanese domestic market while expanding its business in overseas markets such as China. Panasonic will significantly expand domestic sales by enriching product models, and will focus on promoting building lighting fixtures and household bulbs in China. The company will also strengthen parts sales to lighting fixture manufacturers in Europe and America.

　　According to a Panasonic survey, the global LED lighting market size was 600 billion yen in fiscal 2010, and is expected to expand to 2.6 trillion yen by fiscal 2015. Panasonic aims to achieve about 10% of the global market share at that time.

　　According to the plan, by fiscal 2015, sales revenue from LED lighting-related parts and bulbs should reach 160 billion yen domestically and 40 billion yen overseas, totaling 200 billion yen. LEDs will account for 50% of the entire lighting business. In fiscal 2010, actual LED lighting sales revenue was 28.6 billion yen domestically and 3.7 billion yen overseas, totaling 32.3 billion yen; the company aims to achieve sales revenue more than 6 times the current level in 5 years.

On November 1, Panasonic issued a pre-loss announcement, estimating a net loss of 420 billion yen (approximately 5.4 billion US dollars) for this fiscal year, marking the company's lowest performance in nearly 10 years. Panasonic also announced that it would lay off 17,000 people worldwide.