Head of global lighting firm pledges continued investment in China

Global lighting company Signify remains undaunted by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue its investment in China.

Its chairman and chief executive said the company retains an optimistic outlook for China's business environment and views China as a key market from both manufacturing and research and development perspectives.

"We have kept up investment in the local manufacturing capability during the past three years," Signify's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Eric Rondolat said at an interview in Shanghai earlier this month, as he visited the city and met with local employees for the first time in three years.

In the past few years, the lighting product and solution provider kept up investment to expand its capacity at an LED lamp factory in Jiangxi Province. With about 2,000 employees, the KLite factory nearly doubled its business size over the past three years.

"We have maintained organic investment which has complemented our capabilities to keep our foothold," Rondolat said.

"Given the potential of the Chinese market, the fragmentation of the market and our share, I believe we have the potential to grow a lot in China given the opportunities here, and we have been making substantial investment," he added.

"Even if 2022 has been very difficult, we believe that the coming years are going to help us to develop our business and also our people in the Chinese market."

Talking about recent initiatives regarding sustainability and carbon cutting efforts in China, Rondolat said he thought that blueprint could be beneficial for the business.

"I have been impressed by the number of electric vehicles on the road and I can see the movement of the Chinese government toward a sustainability objective that is very ambitious and it totally suits the profile of Signify," he said.

"China's new policies promoting sustainability are going to help us to develop the new technology of ultra efficient LED lighting, which we have developed in the past seven years," he added.

As a leader in the lighting industry, Signify was deeply involved in the industry chain in China, from research to innovative solutions.

With new LED technology that could save a further 50 percent of energy consumption than existing LED technology, "we remain very innovative and as a company we are embracing technology," he said.

Globally, Signify spends a little less than 4 percent of its turnover on innovation.

Smart technologies such as automatic lighting backed by 5G and artificial intelligence capabilities and lighting adjustment according to different mood and atmosphere could be very helpful for its ongoing business, he said.

"We're embracing these new technologies, which I believe will be very important for us in the future."

Signify is already ahead of other lighting companies in the world in terms of its submission of patent filings to the European Patent Office and it retains a leading position when compared to companies in other industries as well.

Signify's Shanghai R&D facility is the second-largest globally for the Netherlands-headquartered company.

Government policies regarding environmentally friendly solutions and sustainability fit well with the company's own positioning with long-term efforts in sustainability practices as well as its inclusive vision.

"At the same time, we have a long-standing vision toward diversity, equity and inclusion and as we build an environment which is conducive to that vision and value proposition, we also seek partners in order to be able to achieve the objective," Rondolat added.

Having deeply integrated itself in the local ecosystem, Signify has developed partnerships with local players.

"We have a range of connected lighting devices that are compatible with the Xiao Mi ecosystem," he said. A joint venture with local e-commerce service provider Baozun has been helpful as well for the company to develop its online business.

"We have been and will continue to be willing to follow the government's direction we supported and we believe we will be supported by the local government by contributing to the economy and social development in the right way," he said.