UK photonics vendors get down to business

摘要

These are tough times for technology vendors, nowhere more so than in the UK. Over the past 12 months, Britain's manufacturing and banking sectors have taken an almighty clobbering. The outlook remains grim. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, an economics consultancy, UK gross domestic product is forecast to contract by 3.8% in 2009 and afurther 1.1% in 2010. What's more, analysts don't expect a sustained recovery in bank lending, the lifeblood of many small- and medium-sized enterprises, until 2011-12.rnIn spite of all of this economic carnage, it's evident that a number of UK-based optics companies are bucking the headline trend and making the best of the bad times. Here OLE talks to three of them about their strategies for navigating the downturn.