Plessey is to invest £60million to expand its LED manufacturing facility in Plymouth. The expansion will increase production capacity by a factor of 30, triple the workforce and put Plessey in a position to capture what it calls a ‘significant share’ of the growing market for solid state lighting market.
Michael LeGoff, Plessey’s CEO, noted: “We are entering a very exciting period for the company with our new technology and products gaining traction in one of the fastest growing technology markets. The expansion is not only significant for the company, but also for British high tech manufacturing. It aligns well with national strategies, such as the Growth Review, that support manufacturing and make the UK a global leading exporter of high value goods.”
The move, which will see Plessey increase its manufacturing capacity to more than 3billion mm2 of GaN material per year, has been supported by a £30m loan from Deutsche Bank and £6.7m from the Regional Growth Fund. The expansion should be completed by the end of 2017.
According to a report from MarketsandMarkets, demand for solid state lighting is projected to reach $22.2billion by 2020, driven by high brightness LEDs.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk