Eric Rondolat, CEO of Philips Lighting, talked briefly about the lighting market in the US during an interview with CNBC.

Philips Lighting CEO Eric Rondolat. (Image: Philips Lighting)

Philips Lighting announced the company’s 3Q17 results last October, with a total sales increase of 1.3% mainly driven by the significant growth in its LED business. The total LED-based sales rose by 22%.

The consolidated comparable sales growth of the LED, professional and home lighting businesses offset the decline of the conventional lighting unit, said Rondolat.

Despite the fact that the US market has turned softer, the connected lighting business of the company still saw a very strong double-digit growth, which is in line with its strategy, according to the CEO. He stated that the company’s smart street lighting management platform CityTouch has been deployed in 1,000 projects.

He continued that Philips Lighting has recently been putting efforts in new entertainment lighting. The company just announced last month the partnership with high-performance gaming hardware provider Razer to combine the Philips Hue Entertainment API and tools with the Razer Chroma lighting ecosystem for immersive gaming experience.

As for the outlook for 2018, the lighting market in the US is likely to stay soft while Europe, China, and India would witness expanding demand for lighting, commented Rondolat. Philips Lighting lately has added Baidu, the Chinese language internet search engine, to its ‘Friend of Hue’ partner program, seeking to approach the Chinese community with its smart lighting products.

When asked whether the Donald Trump tax cuts will stimulate the lighting demand in the North America, the CEO showed his positivity. He also expressed his trust in the governments and the anti-dumping regulations when it comes to the situation where Asian manufacturers pose threats by selling products below cost.

Rondolat believed the company’s connectivity platforms and services will push higher the margin in the specialty lighting space.

He also added that more climate change actions should be taken in terms of preserving the environment.

Philips Lighting has delivered one billion LED lamps to the market as a part of its commitment to the ‘Global Lighting Challenge’ to globally improve energy efficiency. It aims to reach two billion and attain the goal to be carbon neutral by 2020.