Silica and Seoul Semiconductor Sign Pan-European Distribution Agreement

Munich - Seoul Semiconductor (KOSDAQ: 046890), one of the largest LED manufacturers in the world, and SILICA, an Avnet (NYSE:AVT) Company, have entered into an agreement whereby Avnet will distribute Seoul’s entire line of LEDs and solid state illumination products in Europe. The agreement, which takes effect immediately, makes energy efficient lighting solutions and other LED applications more readily available to European industrial customers. SILICA’s extensive customer base enables Seoul Semiconductor to significantly extend its reach to potential new customers who will benefit from Seoul’s advanced LED technology, and SILICA’s in-depth technical and commercial support.

Seoul Semiconductor recently introduced a number of highly innovative LED technologies, amongst them “Acriche”, the world’s only semiconductor light source capable of running directly from household AC power without the need for additional converters. Acriche includes essentially the brightest single-die white LEDs, which are expected to replace conventional light sources such as fluorescent or incandescent lamps.

Both Seoul and SILICA foresee LED technology breakthroughs such as Acriche to serve as the future lighting source of choice for commercial/residential applications by portable lighting manufacturers, architects, manufacturers of TV and computers’ displays, automotive designers and makers of traffic signals, handsets and signage.

According to Miguel Fernandez, Silica president, “Seoul Semiconductor’s broad range of advanced LED technology will revolutionise many segments of the lighting industry and is therefor a valuable addition to our existing portfolio. SILICA expects to have a strong emphasis on the Illumination market in the future and the partnership with Seoul marks a major development in our product strategy. We will work with customers through a pan-European team of dedicated illumination-focused engineers to ensure that our customers will enjoy not just a single source of supply, but also the in-depth technical support that is essential for realising successful product design within the shortest possible timeframe.”

“Avnet globally is the leading distributor in many emerging illumination sectors and we consider this agreement as a significant opportunity to bring our LEDs to the market in Europe. We selected SILICA as our strategic partner in this venture for several important reasons,” said Yanghee Han, managing director for Sales and Marketing, Seoul Semiconductor. “First is their broad reach into many market sectors; second is that Silica has demonstrated its strengths in terms of demand creation and engineering services and of course, their extensive offering of related semiconductors and supply chain services.”