April 2, 2004 Newton, NJ and Carlsbad, CA -- Thorlabs Inc. and Melles Griot Corp. have jointly announced the purchase of Melles Griot Ltd., Cambridgeshire, UK, a division of the Melles Griot Corp. by Thorlabs. The facility manufactures nano-positioning systems for high-precision alignment applications, along with optical tables and full vibration isolation systems.
According to Blake Fennell, CEO for Melles Griot, "We strive to be a leaner, more focused organization. More than 80% of our revenue is now OEM based, equally split between lasers and optics. This is where our investment in infrastructure and IP will most benefit our customers and other stakeholders. We also continue to invest in logistics and channel development for our catalog business."
Alex Cable, president and founder of Thorlabs, said of the new acquisition, "The high-quality Melles Griot Ltd. products add another dimension to the Thorlabs product offerings, and the new engineering and manufacturing base in the United Kingdom will significantly enhance the service provided to our customers in the UK. We are quickly reaching critical mass in terms of a complete source of photonics tools and technologies".
Thorlabs will continue manufacturing operations at the UK site, which was a critical factor in the deal. Both Thorlabs and Melles Griot are committed to ensuring that both their customers and their employees are positively affected by the move.
Melles Griot supplies photonics products including lasers, optics, opto-mechanical hardware, instrumentation, and machine vision systems. Thorlabs, Inc. is a broad-based optical technologies company. Its product portfolio covers simple optical and mechanical components, to integrated test and measurement systems.