Philips suffered a quarterly loss of 59 million euros while turnover fell by 17 percent. The company does not expect any improvement in the second quarter and says it will accelerate cost-cutting measures.
Philips says that the economic situation in the consumer and lighting market has deteriorated further in the past quarter. According to CEO Gerard Kleisterlee is now also affected by the Healthcare segment of the company. He said he did not expect the situation to improve in the second quarter.
Sales of the Television and Audio & Video Multimedia division fell by 33 percent compared to the first quarter of 2008, while sales of Lighting were 19 percent lower. Healthcare, a division that traditionally delivers fairly stable results, also showed a 2 percent drop in turnover in the first quarter of 2009, with the construction and automotive parts in particular performing poorly. In emerging markets, Philips still sees growth in Healthcare.
Philips will accelerate cost-cutting measures in the second quarter. In particular, a restructuring of the lighting division should yield 90 million euros. The company expects to be able to reduce its fixed costs by 500 million euros this year.