Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The new facility, planned to begin production this autumn, will be manned by around 50 locally sourced staff, who have spent the last year in Cambridge receiving cutting-edge training, with the number reaching over 100 when operation begins.

The photonic switching solutions firm plans to move its standard telecom and instr-umentation products manuf-acturing to the new facility, where cost advantages will enable it to ramp up production to meet escalating market demand.

Polatis CEO, Dave Lewis said: “This is an exciting period of growth for our company and the new facility in Poland illustrates the increasing demand for our high performance products in the marketplace.

“The new facility will enable us to ramp up production and scale our operations to meet both near-term customer needs, and large volume programmes where we are in trials now.”

Poland is becoming the destination of choice for firms in the UK seeking low-cost infrastructure and talent, whilst remaining on England’s doorstep compared to manufacturing destinations like China and Thailand.

Lewis said: “We selected Poland as an ideal location for expansion due to its combination of a highly talented workforce and excellent cost advantages.”

2005 saw the merger of Polatis with Boston-based Continuum and the two cities will remain the hubs for the group’s existing specialised defence and advanced engineering technology development.

Founded in 2000, Polatis has become a leader in in ultra-low loss optical switching, with its ‘DirectLight’ optical beam steering technology powering the creation of highly reliable and compact photonic switching solutions. The firm counts 3i, Alta Berkley and Esprit Capital Partners among its investors.

Polatis has been attending NXTcomm in Chicago this week, showcasing the next generation of optical switch technology.