The company blamed poor lighting sales on the anaemic construction industry in developed countries, and said its gross sales in lighting would grow in the low single digits. But production capacity is being severely underutilised due to low demand, mainly in western Europe. Margins in the company’s lighting division fell to some 4 per cent, well below the 10 per cent margin in the first quarter.Philips also said low consumer demand in western Europe had hit its consumer products revenues. It also noted some impact from the expected spin-off of its television division to Hong Kong-based TPV, which it announced in April. The company will report that the audio-visual and media section of its consumer products division has fallen into the red. An analyst said Philips officers had told him that the spin-off of the TV business had created customer and retailer uncertainty and led to falling TV sales, which also hurt knock-on sales of other audio-visual products.
James Wright on 09 May 11For the year ending March 31 2011, Hitachi Cable Ltd announced group revenue was Y419.3 billion up year-on-year from Y372.5 billion in 2010. Operating profit was Y788.0 million, compared to a loss of Y6.4 billion in 2010. The company said it had a pre tax profit loss of Y1.8 billion for the year, an improvement from 2010 when there was a pre tax profit loss of Y4.9 billion. In 2010 the company posted a net profit loss of Y9.1 billion; in 2011 there was a net profit loss of almost Y13 billion.
