Photonics News No 92

Dear Reader,

We are celebrating our 40th anniversary this year, and at the beginning everything looked good: With an in-house vaccination rate of around 95% and well-established digital processes, we made it through the Covid era just fine. Employees are increasingly returning to the company from the home office, one sales record has followed another, and we are already visiting our first customers again and planning important trade shows. Last year, we were able to increase our business by more than 50%, and even the current supply chain problems are only causing comparatively minor delays because we had invested in an appropriate stockpile early on.

However, no one is in the mood to celebrate. The events we have been witnessing in Ukraine these days are staggering. We too had believed in easing tensions through economic cooperation and had established contacts in Russia. In the process, we got to know a young, apolitical, and cosmopolitan generation of entrepreneurs. The livelihood of these partners is now gone for the time being. I think this is also worth mentioning in juxtaposition to the much greater suffering in Ukraine because in war there are only losers.

The flood of refugees has triggered a great willingness to help throughout Europe. We are proud that the photonics industry is currently committed to holding fundraising events for the refugees during LASER World of PHOTONICS. LASER COMPONENTS will support these events in a big way.

PATRICK PAUL
General Manager of LASER COMPONENTS