US LED maker Cree was shocked to report the layoffs, but Cree said that they are retrenching this time.
According to news from the United States, a small number of the company's employees in Racine, Wisconsin, Northwestern United States have been dispatched. This is to reflect the company's current business situation, that is, the LED sales measures that were not taken as expected . LED chips and LED lighting have been Cree's strong involvement in the past few years. The company has also separated Wolfspeed, a power and radio frequency business, focusing on GaN Power and RF products.
Cree issued a brief statement, but did not disclose more details about the layoffs. The market estimates that the number of layoffs this time should be quite small, but reflects the reality that Cree has to tie up costs.
According to LEDinside analysis, Cree currently has approximately 2,500 employees at its headquarters in Durham, U.S., and its office in Racine, Wisconsin, was adopted when it purchased Rudd Lighting for $ 525 million in 2011. The layoffs also affected a small portion of Cree's headquarters in Durham, North Carolina.
Cree's recent financial performance shows that last quarter's revenue increased by 2% to $ 388 million, which is better than the previous quarter's decline of 10%. According to Cree's financial forecast for the company's fiscal year Q1 2017, revenue fell between $ 356 million and $ 378 million, which is much less than the $ 425.5 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Facing the changing situation of the industry, Cree has already reduced production in 2015, and the market development in 2016 has also worked hard on sales. However, due to competition from Asian supply chain manufacturers, Cree's current situation is more difficult than before.