business profile Playing the
Laser SoS has cornered the market in laser refurbishment and repairs, as Warren clark discovers
parts T
oni Koszykowski, the founder and CEO of Laser SOS, rather stumbled across a career in
photonics. In the early 1980s, he was working for a large US company that manufactured thick-fi lm microcircuit paste, as used for printing thick fi lm microcircuits. At the time, abrasive trimmers were used for adjusting the value of the resistors. ‘It was around 1983 or 1984 when ESI (Portland, Oregon) produced the fi rst commercially-available thick fi lm laser trimmer,’ says Koszykowski. ‘Up to that point, as far as I was aware, lasers were primarily R&D tools. This was the fi rst time I had seen their potential for use in industrial processes.’ Noticing that the market for
lasers was about to explode, Koszykowski realised that there was a huge market for service, support and spares. ‘I did some investigating,’ he says, ‘and found that the OEMs were charging a great deal of money for laser components and consumables, so I thought there was an opportunity there.’ And so, Laser SOS was incorporated in 1985 by
WHEN THE ECONOMY FAILS, DIVERSIFY
One of Toni Koszykowski’s more bizarre business ventures was borne out of the recent economic crash. ‘The fi nancial crisis hit India hard in 2009,’ he says, ‘and the diamond industry ground to a halt. Effectively, our factories found themselves with no orders to fulfi ll. My business partner in India, who is originally from Goa, went back there for a break, and stumbled across a half-fi nished hotel resort. ‘He found that the initial investor had run out of money before he could
complete the hotel. My business partner called me and suggested we take over the project and invest in the hotel. For some reason, I said yes, so Laser SOS India now owns a high-quality resort hotel in Goa – not something I ever thought I would fi nd myself saying after 25 years in the laser industry!’
8 electro optics l october 2011
Koszykowski and his wife, initially in the study of his house near Cambridge, UK. ‘We started with nothing at all – no equipment, no customers,’ he says. ‘I simply found business the old-fashioned way. I went to exhibitions and I knocked on a lot of doors. Since then we’ve generated business through other ways, including advertising and, of course, word-of-mouth. We’ve benefi ted from customers setting up new companies elsewhere, and coming back to us, effectively as a new customer.’ For the fi rst decade, Laser SOS
grew steadily as a reseller of laser components, until 1995, when the company began to retrofi t existing laser systems. ‘We’d design the necessary components and get them made,’
toni Koszykowski
do it properly. However, the demand was clearly there, and producing OEM lasers is now a signifi cant part of our business. ‘We also developed our own diodes and other product lines that enabled us to supply ourselves and, later, our sister companies. So we now have our own products to push alongside the catalogue sales business.’
The evolution of the Laser SOS
sister companies began with a chance meeting at the Laser World of Photonics show in Munich in
it’s clear laser technology
is moving very fast, with different technologies coming through
says Koszykowski, ‘then source things like mirrors, rods, fl ashlamps and so on. Gradually we expanded the portfolio of products that we could retrofi t, and we now supply components for lasers from more than 400 manufacturers. We’re probably now the largest provider of replacement and retrofi t parts for lasers in the world.’ As the company grew, customers
began asking Laser SOS to supply them not just with components, but with power supplies, RF drivers and so on. ‘We moved to a position where we could effectively provide the market with complete OEM systems,’ says Koszykowski. ‘I was reluctant to go into this market at fi rst, because I knew it would take a lot of effort and a lot of people to
1990, when a representative from India met Koszykowski to discuss providing OEM lasers for use in machines for the diamond industry. ‘I was invited over to India,’ says Koszykowski, ‘and found that the diamond industry was just emerging. However, the lasers used for cutting the diamonds were being imported from places like Israel; they were expensive and the import duties were horrendously high. ‘We soon started to provide
lamp-pumped lasers to them so they could build their own laser systems. This one business venture proved to be the making of us as a company, and funded our growth tremendously.’
Indeed, the success led to the creation of Laser SOS India in
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