Wellypower Accelerates Lighting Deployment

Taipei, Oct. 18, 2010 (CENS)--Wellypower Optronic Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of liquid crystal display maker AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), recently launched a new generation of T5 fluorescent lamp, underscoring its determination to ramp up lighting business to account for one third of its total sales by the end of this year.

The latest T5 lamp boasts the merit of filtering out 90% of ultraviolet radiation.

According to Wellypower's vice chairman and president, C.J. Chang, lighting and backlight module operations will constitute an equal half of the company's sales in 2011 as a result of the implementation of a plan to develop strong presence in mainland China's lighting market.

The company plans to make most of Taiwan's quality manufacturing to compete with General Electric (GE), Osram and Philips in mainland China's lighting market. Chang noted that his company is considering opening shops in the mainland's southern coastal cities of Xiamen and Guangzhou.

Wellypower, according to Chang, will use the mainland market to carry out its goal of raising brand name operation to 60% of its lighting business in 2011 from the current 40%, leaving the remaining 40% filled by contract-manufacturing operation.

Currently, the company depends on overseas and domestic markets for 70-80% and 20-30% of lighting revenue, respectively. Its major overseas markets include Japan and Southeast Asia, and its contract buyers are mostly in Europe, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and India.

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In Taiwan, Wellypower has made its lighting products available at home improvement store chain B&Q.

In addition to hot cathode fluorescent lamps, the company produces light emitting diode (LED), organic LED (OLED), and cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs), prompting Chang to report that Wellypower is the world's exclusive lighting manufacturer to provide a complete range of light sources.

Wellypower is Taiwan's No.1 CCFL manufacturer thanks to AUO's sizable demand for CCFLs used in LCD panels as backlight. The lighting manufacturer plans to further boost LED-package output to 300 million units a month sometime next year after ramping up to 200 million a month by the end of this year.

Chang pointed out that his company will display new lamps and lighting fixtures at the autumn edition of the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair 2010, which will be held from Oct. 27-20.