It’s reported that Cree, Inc., 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. At the same time, Cree, and Digi-Key Corporation that is a broad-line distributor of electronic components and accessories since 1972, has been distributing Cree's energy-saving power components since 2007, have also signed an agreement for the distribution of Cree's high-performance 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.
Mark Despotes, Cree vice president of global channels said "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. 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."
According to Marianne Culver, head of global supplier management at Premier Farnell, this global distribution agreement will provide their extensive design engineering customer base with the very latest LED lighting technology. The addition of Cree's high-performance LEDs will significantly enhance their technology linecard and they 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.
The global agreement covers the Cree LED portfolio, including the award-winning lighting-class XLamp LEDs and the broad high-brightness portfolio, which includes round, oval, SMDs and P4 LEDs. Cree LEDs are available through Digi-Key's top-rated website and will be added to future print catalogs.
Despotes indicated "The addition of Digi-Key widens Cree's ability to reach growth markets for our LEDs, Digi-Key has the expertise and the commitment to help accelerate the adoption of LEDs--including the fast-growing lighting-class and high-brightness markets."
"By expanding our extensive catalog of products to now include Cree LEDs, we are able to offer customers access to this industry-leading technology," said Mark Larson, Digi-Key president and COO. "We're seeing increasing market demand for high-quality LEDs, and the Cree LED products are a key addition to our portfolio."
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.
About Premier Farnell
Premier Farnell plc sis 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.
About Digi-Key Corporation
One of the world’s fastest growing distributors of electronic components, Digi-Key has earned its reputation as an industry leader through its total commitment to service and performance. As a full-service provider of both prototype/design and production quantities of electronic components, Digi-Key has been ranked #1 for Overall Performance for 17 consecutive years from among the nation’s more than 200 distributors . Offering more than a million products from nearly 400 quality, name-brand manufacturers, Digi-Key’s commitment to inventory is unparalleled.
