According to the trade on the 14th, LG Electronics separated its LED lights business organization from the Air Conditioner & Energy Solution (AE) division and set it up into a division of its own, reporting directly to the COO. Sigwan Ryoo, the ex-VP of LED division at LG Innotek was assigned to take charge of the newly established division.

LG’s move was a de facto announcement of the electronics giant moving into the LED lights market classified as a business category for SMEs. LG’s main LED products are straight-tube type LED lights, factory lights and surface illuminants. LG took its business one step further, from supplying only the LED lighting module (engine) to supplying the final product packaged with the company’s other products. For example, LG will approach a building owner who chose LG’s system air conditioners and sell its OEM-made interior/exterior LED lights as a package. The LED division is already working closely with the AE division sales force.

On the other hand, the voice against LG’s expansion into LED lights industry is growing. The LED lights was categorized as a trade adequate for SMEs by the government, but LG did not hesitate to make its expansion widely visible. A person from mid-sized LED lights company commented, “many Chaebol companies thought twice about entering into the industry after government announced the business categories for SMEs, but it seems that LG decided to ‘take one for the pack’. If they are decent enough to honor the idea of government reserving some trade for the SMEs, they would leave the market alone.”

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