Fibercore Fires Up New Facility

SOUTHAMPTON, U.K. -- Fibercore Limited, Europe's premier specialty optical fibre manufacturer has today announced it has completed the commissioning of its new fiber production facility at its Southampton, England home.

Having moved into the new facility at the start of the year, the company retained much of its fiber production at its existing Southampton Opto-Electronics Research Centre-based facility until it could fully qualify the fiber produced on its new lathes and towers. This ensured it could maintain supply for existing customers, while ensuring fibers at the new facility were indistinguishable from those it was already supplying.

Fibercore's new research, development and production facility has taken a total of 3 years to plan and construct and has been funded entirely from retained earnings. This emphasises its unique position as a company with no debt and a strong forward order book. When operating at full capacity the new facility will enable the company to increase its capacity by a factor of ten. This would take output to around 3500km of specialty optical fiber every month based on current designs, with the potential to double this through process improvement - providing significant headspace above current shipments of around 350 km/month.

Having built a reputation for delivering the highest quality fibers, supported by leading edge research capabilities and industry leading customer service, the company has maintained fiber production throughout the transition process. Despite the current depression in the telecoms industry, Fibercore Limited currently ships around 350 km of fiber every month - more than at any time in its 21 year history. This is a result of the company's single-minded focus on specialty fiber and its established reputation in the defence, fundamental research, aerospace, sensing and fiber-gyro marketplaces.

Fibercore Limited's broad customer base has meant that the company has reported just a 30 percent fall in sales revenue since the height of the market in 2000, in a climate where 75 - 90 percent is an accepted norm. The new facility will enable it to continue to meet existing demand while future-proofing capacity for the return of telecoms and continued growth in its existing strongholds.

Dr. Chris Emslie, Fibercore Limited's Managing Director says, 'I am delighted that our state-of-the-art production facility has been successfully commissioned and is now producing 100 percent of our specialty optical fibers. It was vital to ensure that the fibers produced on the new lathes meet our strict quality control standards to make our fiber identical to the products we have been supplying to customers over the last two decades.

'Fibercore Limited has been at the forefront of photonics for the last 21 years and the commissioning of our new research, development and production facility will ensure we remain there. Our new home will not only enable us to continue to meet customers' current demands, but also safeguards our pioneering fiber development work while equipping us to meet the future demands of a rejuvenated telecoms market.'

Fibercore Ltd.