Mayor Kristen Becker called the project 'an integral piece' of city plans to revitalize the area. The $20 million project was funded in part by a $4 million bond grant for redeveloping a former brownfield, originally owned by the Sterling Silk Company and abandoned since 1993. In October 2010, Thorlabs broke ground on a new 125,000 sq ft headquarters in Newton. For the year, revenue reached $125 million and Thorlabs employed about 650 people at year's end. Based in Jessup, Maryland, Covega was renamed Thorlabs Quantum Electronics (TQE) and its 40,000 sq.

In March 2009, Thorlabs acquired optoelectronic components manufacturer Covega from Gemfire. In May 2007, Thorlabs won the Laser Focus World/Phast Innovation Award for the development of the ASOM (Adaptive Scanning Optical Microscope). The company had a product line of 9,000 and estimated annual sales of $50 million in 2004. In 20, Thorlabs began to expand its operations into Europe, acquiring companies based in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. However, the company was able to quickly adapt and survived its worst year with only an 18% drop in overall revenue. Due to a liberal return policy, at least one quarter during the market crash, Thorlabs actually received more product from returns than it shipped. īefore the telecom market collapsed in the early 2000s, such companies represented 45% of Thorlabs' business. Īccording to company figures, sales topped $10 million for the first time in 1997. Sales during the company's first year amounted to $370,000, according to Cable. Ĭable thus founded Thorlabs, named after his black Labrador retriever, Thor, in a spare bedroom in Freehold, New Jersey. He was able to build up the business to the point where he could afford to quit Bell Labs and pursue it full-time in November 1989. While working at Bell Labs, Alex Cable bought a milling machine which he used to design and build optomechanical parts in his spare time.

Thorlabs siemens star