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
