Newport Relocating Lasers HQ

Newport Corp. will relocate and consolidate its Spectra-Physics Lasers Div. headquarters from its five-building campus in Mountain View, Calif., to a single new facility in Santa Clara, Calif., the company announced last week.

The move comes in the wake of Newport acquiring the New Focus business from Oclaro Inc. in exchange for the Newport Spectra Physics high-power laser diodes business in Tucson, Ariz. (See: Oclaro, Newport Trade Assets). Relocating to Santa Clara is expected to improve operating efficiencies, provide cost savings and facilitate the integration of New Focus, Newport said.

The new facility, located at 3625 Peterson Way in Santa Clara, will include manufacturing, research and development, and office space. The move will improve the efficiency of the division's operations, enabling it to reduce the amount of space it occupies by over 20 percent, from 171,000 sq ft to 132,000, Newport said. The company emphasized that the relocation of the Lasers Div. headquarters is a positive step it is taking to enhance its competitive position during challenging times.

"We are very pleased to be able to move our Lasers Division headquarters to this new, state-of-the-art facility that was originally built for a similar type of production environment," said Robert Phillippy, Newport's president and CEO. "The building represents a significant upgrade of our lasers manufacturing infrastructure, and the consolidation into a single facility will enable further improvements in the Division's work flow while at the same time significantly lowering our facilities costs over the lease term.

"Our recently announced transaction with Oclaro will allow us to eliminate the high-fixed-cost diode fabrication facility in Tucson, Arizona, while sourcing diode lasers for our Spectra-Physics Lasers Division from Oclaro at very competitive price levels. Now, the move of our Lasers Division headquarters to a smaller, more modern manufacturing site will further enhance the improvements to our operations that are already well under way within the division. We expect the combination of these actions to have a positive impact on the division's financial performance," Phillippy said.

The company said it expects to complete the Lasers Div. move and the relocation of the selected New Focus business and manufacturing operations by the end of 2009.

For more information, visit: www.newport.com