Energy efficient LED lighting now makes up almost a quarter of the company’s total lighting sales at 23%, despite a disappointing first quarter.

The Dutch healthcare and consumer appliances group saw first quarter profits slip 12% from the same period a year earlier and acknowledged that it had made a slow start to the first three months of 2013.

Philips chief executive Frans van Houten said: “We reiterate our view of a slow first half to 2013, due to adverse market trends, especially in Europe and the US.”

However, the company’s quarterly financial results demonstrates that LED sales remain a strong area of growth with Philips announcing it has signed a contract to switch most of the lighting on Paris’ metro and RER train stations to LED.

This builds on a number of high-profile LED installations which has seen the Empire State building in New York lit up with the technology, while last year Philips also supplied a South African electricity distributer with 1.8 million LED lamps, significantly reducing energy consumption across the country.

Last week the company also launched the ‘Advanced Sustainable Lighting Solutions’ partnership alongside the Technology Foundation and STW, which provided €3m (£2.5m) of funding for research into more efficient, sustainably produced LED lighting.

Conor McGlone

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