Ideal Industries moving the ball forward at Cree

That promise is now becoming reality as Cree announced it will increase its component manufacturing and final assembly in a USD 8 million push at the Racine, Wisconsin facility. The investment is part of a larger expansion effort kickstarted back in 2019 and will result in new manufacturing equipment and improvements, in addition to approximately 100 new jobs once the expansion is completed, a press release reads. “Vertically integrating manufacturing operations is an important part of the Cree Lighting strategy,” says Craig Atwater, GM and senior VP of Cree Lighting, in the press release. “By further investing in our industry-leading manufacturing capabilities at our Racine facility, we can better serve our customers by reducing our lead times for these manufacturing processes from weeks to a matter of days.” The company currently has more than 1,000 administrative and manufacturing employees at the 700,000 square-foot Racine facility, which produces almost 80% of Cree Lighting products.