Cree Selects Premier Farnell to Expand Its Global LED Distribution Network
DURHAM, N.C. and LONDON, SEPTEMBER 17, 2008
Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, and Premier Farnell plc, a leading multi-channel, high service distributor, announce the signing of a global distribution agreement to distribute performance-leading Cree LEDs.
Premier Farnell will distribute the full standard portfolio of Cree LEDs, including the latest technology solutions in the high-brightness and lighting-class XLamp® families. These products will be distributed throughout Premier Farnell's global network of companies - Newark, Farnell, Premier Electronics and Farnell-Newark, via its multi-channel model of 35 websites, paper-based catalogues and dedicated field sales forces.
"Premier Farnell has an extensive global customer base, reaching those who are both designing and already using high brightness LEDs, along with a reputation for excellent customer service," said Mark Despotes, Cree vice president of global channels. "Distributing our products through Premier Farnell is targeted to add tremendous value to our global network of customers to service the fast-growing LED markets."
"This global distribution agreement will provide our extensive design engineering customer base with the very latest LED lighting technology," said Marianne Culver, head of global supplier management at Premier Farnell. "The addition of Cree's high-performance LEDs will significantly enhance our technology linecard and we are very excited about partnering with this forward-thinking manufacturer to provide new, innovative solutions for our customers, in the high-growth LED lighting market."
About Cree
Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and setting the stage to obsolete the incandescent light bulb through the use of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting retrofit solutions, and semiconductor solutions for backlighting, wireless and power applications.
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 solutions are driving improvements in applications such as general illumination, backlighting, electronic signs and signals, variable-speed motors, and wireless communications. For additional product and company information, please refer to www.cree.com.
About Newark
Newark, a subsidiary of global distributor Premier Farnell Ltd, is North America's leading small-quantity distributor of electronic components and test equipment, and its #1 source for RoHS compliant parts and information. RoHS is the acronym for the European Union's Restrictions of certain Hazardous Substances directive, which took effect July 1, 2006.
Visited by thousands of engineers and electronics buyers each week, Newark's RoHS Express site at www.element14.com/community/community/legislation provides critical information to help companies transition to compliance, including: the latest news, on-demand lead-free soldering webinars, downloadable step-by-step guides to compliance and updates on US and Canadian green laws.
In addition to offering the broadest electronics selection from 440+ top manufacturers for same-day shipping, Newark provides a unique range of value-added services at no charge, including, RoHS Bill of Materials updates, eProcurement implementation and support, and automatic re-reeling for components.
With multiple sales channels, customers do business with Newark through contact centers, a local branch network in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, a dedicated field sales force and a world-class website at www.Newark.com. The holder of a General Services Administration schedule (#GS-06F-0044M,) Newark also supports federal government customers through a dedicated website, www.teamgov.com, and a specially trained team of representatives.
Newark's parent company, Premier Farnell Ltd, is a leading global marketer and distributor of electronic, maintenance repair and operations (MRO) and specialist products and services, trading in more than 100 countries with a database of 2 million customer contacts. For general information, visit www.Newark.com and www.premierfarnell.com. Also, you can reach Newark's media contact, Janice Fleisher, at 773.907.5941 and at jfleisher@Newarkinone.com.
© Copyright 2007. Newark is a service mark of Premier Farnell Corp. All other trademarks, product or service names displayed in this release, registered or unregistered, constitute the intellectual property of their respective holders.