POLATIS CHOOSES POLAND FOR PRODUCTION PLANT
STONG MARKET DEMAND FOR OPTICAL SWITCH PRODUCTS FUELS NEED FOR THIRD FACILITY
Billerica, MA., Cambridge, UK – June 13, 2007 – Polatis Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of optical switches, today announced it is to open a new production facility in Poland, further increasing its manufacturing and development to support growing customer demand for its optical switch technology.
The new Poland facility, which is due to be operational by early Autumn 2007, will augment the production capacity of its other facilities, whose total demand is expected to triple this calendar year. The new facility will concentrate on manufacture of standard products for telecom and instrumentation markets, while Cambridge and Boston will focus on specialized defense products and new technology development.
The Poland facility will feature state-of-the-art manufacturing, test and qualification capabilities, and will eventually support 100 people. The new production team have recently completed a year’s training at the company’s Cambridge facility.
“This is an exciting period of growth for our company and the new facility in Poland illustrates the increasing demand for our high performance products in the marketplace,” said Dave Lewis, CEO of Polatis. “We selected Poland as an ideal location for expansion due to its combination of a highly talented workforce and excellent cost advantages.
“The new facility will enable us to ramp up production and scale our operations to meet both near-term customer needs, and large volume programs where we are in trials now, such as those in FTTH, and backbone network operations.”
The announcement comes as the company prepares for its participation
at NXTcomm, Chicago, an industry event uniting service providers with
the world’s leading technology companies. Live product demonstrations
of the next generation of optical switch technology will take place
in the Polatis booth (5755), Tuesday June 19 through Thursday June 21.
About Polatis
Since inception in 2000, Polatis has set the benchmark in ultra-low
loss optical switching. Its patented DirectLight(R) optical beam steering
technology is powering the creation of highly reliable and compact photonic
switching solutions. Polatis delivers a broad range of optical switching
products with class-leading performance to customers in the communications,
video, defense and instrumentation sectors. The company has headquarters
located near Boston, Massachusetts and in Cambridge, UK. Polatis Inc.
is supported through investments by 3i Group, Alta Berkeley, Prelude
Trust, EonTech Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Prism Venture Partners,
JK&B Capital, Boston Millennia Partners, Harris and Harris Group,
GE Capital, MTDC, Arcadian Venture Partners, and Gainesborough Investments.
To learn more please visit our website at: www.polatis.com
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Contacts
Aaron A. Bent, PhD
VP, Marketing and Business Development
Polatis, Inc.
978-670-4910, x189
aabent@polatis.com
Howard Jones
BCS Public Relations
0044 115 948 6917
0044 7980 772 285
howard@bcspr.co.uk