“Our Q3 results are a reflection of our strong fundamentals and the proactive manner in which we have been managing our costs, allowing us to deliver an underlying profitability of 6.8% of sales in the quarter, among the highest in recent years for the third quarter. We continue to invest in our portfolio of global leading businesses in Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle and Lighting. We have a strong global brand that is still increasing in strength, climbing one notch to number 42 in the Interbrand top-100 global brand ranking, and we have an increasingly strong presence in emerging markets like India and China which are less affected by the economic downturn.
In addition, the decisive action we took at the end of 2008 to focus on cost and cash management is increasingly becoming visible in our performance. This has led to a set of encouraging results in the third quarter, especially if you look at the year-over-year improvement in earnings and cash flow. I would also like to highlight that most businesses across the Company saw further improvement in both comparable sales and underlying earnings compared to the previous quarter, and we are fully focused on continuing this trend in the fourth quarter.
Our continued ability to increase our cash flow by bringing down working capital allowed us to sustain our investments in growth initiatives while maintaining a strong balance sheet. Recent examples are the acquisition of Saeco and our investments in establishing chains of Philips-branded stores for Consumer Lighting in China and India.
We will continue to introduce innovative products in the coming quarter, including a new range of therapy products to better treat sleep apnea patients and new LED-based lighting solutions to light up offices, gardens and retail outlets.
We have been responding to the tough economic environment by stepping up our efforts to make Philips a more customer-focused, agile and simpler company. I believe that our Q3 results show that we are making good progress thanks to the efforts of a committed and engaged global workforce. Therefore, I remain confident that Philips will come out of this recession as a stronger company and a leader in our field.”
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