Artemis Optical Limited

General information

Artemis Optical began life in 1952 called Optical & Electrical Coatings Limited, a company that provided Master Discs for the vinyl record industry, manufactured in glad or platinum. Over the years the company had a series of owners and names, becoming Omitec Electro-Optics Limited in 1968 and then Omitted Thin Films Limited in 1992. In 1997 the company was acquired by the Avimo Group, becoming Avimo Thin Film Technologies Limited, and was subsequently bought by Thales Group in 2001 to become Thales Optical Coatings Limited (Centre of Excellence).

In 2006 a new company was formed called Qioptiq and, backed by Candover Investments, they acquired the Photonics division of the Thales Group, including TOCL. In 2008 as Qioptiq began to react to the changing economic situation, the incumbent management team were successful in negotiating a management buy out for the acquisition of the business.

Artemis Optical was created as the spin-off.