DURHAM, N.C. and LONDON, Sept. 17, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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(r) 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 line card, 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.
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About Premier Farnell
Premier Farnell plc (LSE:PFL) is a leading high-service, multi-channel distributor of electronic, maintenance, repair and operation products and specialist services throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. It goes to market with a differentiated value proposition, world-class marketing, a stocked range of 400,000 plus products, and access to 4,000,000 more items from 3,000 top manufacturers. The company has group sales of GBP 744.7 million and 4,100 employees globally.
While global in scope, Premier Farnell recognizes the individual needs of each market and has continued to internationalize its model accordingly, trading locally under different brand names. Its primary electronics businesses trade as Farnell in the UK, Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand, Newark in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and Premier Electronics in China and Hong Kong. In Singapore, Malaysia and Brazil the operation is known as Farnell Newark. For more information visit the website at www.PremierFarnell.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, including customer acceptance of LED products; the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impair demand or render Cree's products obsolete; and other factors discussed in Cree's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 29, 2008, and subsequent filings.
Cree and XLamp are registered trademarks of Cree, Inc.