SIGNALLING A BRIGHTER FUTURE In March 2018, Philips Lighting announced its decision to rename the company: “Signify”. In its first year of trading the company recorded revenues of more than €1.5 billion. Philip Yorke looks at the transformation of an industrial giant and the cutting edge advances it has made in its first year of operation. 122 Industry Europe
P
hilips Lighting was founded in the Netherlands in 1891 and began by manufacturing carbon-filament lamps. It has since been responsible for many of the world’s most important, groundbreaking innovations from the invention of the x-ray and solid-state radio technology, to the development of LED’s (light emitting diodes). When the company changed its brand name to ‘Signify’ it became the global number one for connected, LED and conventional lighting products overnight. The choice of the new company name ‘Sigfnify’
