Japan's Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) aims to raise sales of its non-commercial LED lights and other energy-saving light bulbs to 1 trillion yen ($9.50 billion) in 12 years by expanding sales abroad, its president said on Thursday.
Toshiba, which competes against global leaders General Electric Co (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Philips (PHG.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) and Osram, said that sales target would be equivalent to 20 percent of the global market for such next-generation lights in 2020. It now holds a low-single digit percent of the global market.
"We have the technological advantage, and now is our chance to win share worldwide in the lighting business," Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said in an interview with Reuters, adding that the company eyes growth in Russia and China as well as in Japan.
"We may eventually need to build new factories abroad."
Toshiba, which developed Japan's first light bulb, plans to phase out production of most of its incandescent light bulbs by 2010.