“If you get the right combination of people and continue to recruit and develop them you can do great things, independent of pricing models, market conditions, and technology. At Optimax, we feel secure, even during tough times, because of the quality of our workforce. That has more to do with our success than anything else.”
– Michael Mandina, President/Founder
In the early ‘90s Optimax Systems, Inc., was one of the first manufacturers to adopt a breakthrough computer-controlled technology for grinding and polishing lenses allowing them to offer unique services to their customers. Since then, this small upstate New York firm – known for thinking big – has kept innovating, getting smarter, faster, and more precise. From its early beginning, when it was launched in the basement of a barn, this nine-person shop with sales of $1.4 million has expanded substantially. Today Optimax Systems is America’s largest prototype optics manufacturer operates out of a 40,000+ square foot facility with impressive technological capabilities and employs 140 people, with revenues of nearly $15 million and a steady stream of defense, semiconductor, medical, and aerospace clients. Signature projects include the Mars Exploration Rover Mission and the Mercury Messenger project for NASA. Today, “Precision Optics in One Week” and Optimax Systems go hand in hand, a turnaround time that was once unheard of in the industry. It is one thing to create a catchy tagline, but quite another to build a compelling financial model around it, coupled with a campaign to educate the market about a new way of doing business. While the economy has taken a toll on many, this is one of a handful of firms in the optics industry that is well positioned to provide real value to its customers through their small volume, high quality, and fast delivery services. While business slowed down over the past year, with some impact on the Optimax workforce, 2010 has been particularly robust; revenue is up more than 30% and bookings are up 50%, the highest in the history of the business.