top class photography. It aspires to attain the same leading 
status in numerous other areas of "mechoptronics". 
Leica was formed on 2 April 1990 through the merger of the 
Cambridge Instrument Company pic and Wild Leitz Holding AG. Leica 
operates under British law, is registered in London and has its 
formal headquarters in Bar Hill, near Cambridge. There is a 
thorough Swiss influence, however, and the management of the 
concern in based in St Gallen near Zurich. Leica is 71% 
controlled by Unotec holding, which in turn belongs to the ANOVA 
Group of Dr Stefan Schmidheiny, one of the two remarkable brothers 
who control a formidable share of Swiss industry. 
Leica is large. Its annual turnover is 1500 million Swiss francs 
and it has 11500 employees. It has technological and 
manufacturing centres in eight countries and sales and marketing 
subsidiaries in 23, plus representatives in many more. Famous 
companies and trademarks are grouped under one roof (Fig. 1) . 
Photogrammetrists will remember, too, that Cambridge Instruments 
had brought with it to the merger expertise and product lines from 
earlier confluences with American Optical and Bausch and Lomb. 
Leica offers "state of the art" products of the highest quality, 
leads in key technologies and has earned large market shares in 
strategic segments. Its objective has been defined as being "the 
world's first choice provider of innovative solutions to 
customers' needs for vision, measurement and analysis". 
etcu 
Leica Pic 
KERNSWISS 
Cambridge 
Instruments 
f) 
Reichert Jung 
HEEBB RIJGG 
Fig. 1 
Famous trademarks within Leica pic