100 per cent growth for UK laser firm

The company is a designer, developmenter and manufacturer of optical fibre-based lasers reports revenues for the year ended 31 December 2006 in line with the market estimate of £7 million - this represents 100 per cent growth over the previous year’s revenue. In addition to the fixed orders of over $2 million announced on 30 November 2006, the company reports that it has received further orders and new framework agreements for over $6 million in the medical, marking and micro sectors. SPI expects to ship these orders in the first half of 2007. In Q4 2006 the company began shipping its 200 W products for micro applications. “We have successfully managed to solidify SPI’s technology position while achieving market forecasts, albeit with some additional costs," said David Parker, chief executive. "In the last quarter, order inflow has been strong across the product portfolio and during 2006 we entered new market verticals such as diamond processing and power cells, which we look forward to developing further in 2007.” SPI was founded in 2000 on technology developed by the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre, and is based in Southampton.