profile
Andy May, managing director, After several years of cost cutting and layoffs,
Rofin-Baasel UK.
it returned to profitability. Siemens decided to
sell the company off in 1996 and a new
company went public in the United States,
raising enough capital for a massive expansion
and paving the way for further acquisitions. In
1997 it bought Dilas Diodenlaser, adding
semiconductor lasers to its range of CO and
2
Nd:YAG systems. Later it bought the assets of
Palomar Technologies, which gave it a presence
i n t h e U K , a n d R a s a n t A l c o t e c
Beschichtungstechnik. The company had added
manufacturing plants in the United States,
United Kingdom, and Japan. Sales were
booming in the electronics industry and
automakers were starting to adopt CO and
2
Nd:YAG for cutting and welding in large
numbers. 2000 saw the $40m acquisition of
Baasel Lasertech Group from Mannesmann
Group (Mannesmann had just been taken over
by Vodafone for $183bn and it was looking to
get a little bit of change back by selling off the
non-telecoms assets).
Baasel, which started in Munich and was still
A systems player
based near there, had also been around since the
1970s and was stronger at the small end of the
business with a leading position in the jewellery,
dental and medical devices markets, as well as a
strong position in marking. But, broadly, the two
companies complemented each other.
John Murphy looks at Rofin-Baasel UK, part of a worldwide The acquisitions continued, with Sweden’s
group that has made great strides in the laser market
Optoskand being bought in 2004. It provided
fibre-optic delivery systems for high-power
solid-state lasers (but not the laser sources), and
A
decade or so ago the name Rofin was Like most well-established companies in the had about two dozen employees and annual

just one of the also-rans in the global laser business Rofin has a complex history and sales of $3m. It had been one of Rofin’s suppliers
market for industrial lasers. It was a pedigree. The story begins more than 33 years for years.
division of Siemens with little to distinguish and more than 40,000 lasers ago in 1975, when Rofin-Sinar acquired two other companies in
itself. Samuel Simonsson founded a company in 2004. One was PRC Laser Corporation, which
In the late 90s it was released from the huge Hamburg to sell lasers. This became known as specialised in high-power CO lasers for the
2
German industrial conglomerate and told to Sinar Lasersysteme. Later he bought a similar machine tool industry, and the other was Lee
make its own way in the world. And what an UK company called Rofin, and Rofin-Sinar was Laser, which focused on medium-power laser
extraordinary transformation it has made. It born. It made its first home-designed laser in sources for marking and micro applications in
went public to raise capital and then bought a 1982 and was successful in selling them to the semiconductor and electronics industries.
series of complementary companies, including Germany industry for cutting and welding. By The two had combined sales of about $30m,
Baasel Lasertech, to create a power-house in 1986 it had sold 300 systems and, although tiny most of it from outside the United States.
industrial lasers and systems, with 1,750 compared to Spectra Physics, to whom it In 2005 Peter Wirth, the architect of Rofin-
employees and global revenues of $575m. It has licensed one of its lasers, it was the third-largest Sinar’s astonishing rise to its current position of
manufacturing capacity across the world industrial laser manufacturer in the world. half a billion dollars in sales, had to step down
including major sites in the US and Germany. In 1987 the company was acquired by as CEO on health grounds, but he remains
It has an installed base of 31,000 lasers around Siemens, which wanted to become a major force chairman of the board. He was replaced by
the globe. in the laser market. Rofin-Sinar invested heavily Gunther Braun, the company’s chief financial
While a lot of its business is providing light in research and manufacturing capacity, and officer since 1996. Although share prices are
sources and beam delivery systems the Baasel later bought out the industrial division of depressed all round these days, Rofin can boast
takeover has launched it into the systems Spectra and Coherent’s laser marking operation. that at one stage its share prices had increased
business with expertise in marking and delicate Positive strides were made until the industrial 16-fold since flotation.
machining tasks, and is constantly finding new recession of the early 1990s, which saw many With so many acquisitions, there were some
markets. laser companies fall by the wayside. overlaps in key markets. Rofin and Baasel had
8 lASer SYSTeMS eUrope • issue 2 www.lasersystemseurope.com
LSEspr09 pp08-11 Profile.indd 8 3/4/09 11:13:52 AM
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