LOMO

Recently, LOMO has won a tender of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the supply of microscopes to Russian medical institutions. The bank earmarked 270 million dollars for the purpose. LOMO's rivals in the competition were such companies of world renown as Leica, Carl Zeiss and Toyota. Thus, a Russian company won a competition with the world's leaders in the field of high technologies in optics and fine mechanics.

LOMO is Russia's first and largest company which produces optico-mechanical and optico-electronic instruments. It was founded on February 4, 1914. On the eve of World War I the Russian joint-stock company of optical and mechanical instruments began to manufacture commodities necessary for the army and navy. After the socialist revolution of 1917 the company and its plant were nationalized. In 1962 several enterprises in Leningrad producing optical and fine mechanical devices and instruments were united in LOMO, which consisted of four factories and design bureaus. They all had one management and one source of financing. In 1971 LOMO produced the "Avrora" cine camera, and next year the serial production of "Biolam" and "Polam" microscopes began. In 1976 LOMO designers created the world's biggest azimuth telescope (BAT) with a mirror of six metres in diameter, which was made for investigating stars of our Galaxy and quasars. It takes billions of years for their light to reach the Earth.

In 1992 LOMO began to sell its shares, thus turning into a private joint-stock company. Now it is entirely private, belonging to 20,000 shareholders. Its authorized capital is 31 million denominated roubles. Among its biggest shareholders are joint-stock companies "Inros Capital", "MFK", "Eastern Investment Company", ULM ENTERPRISES Ltd, the "Russ-Invest" Cheque Fund, and SINCHORDIA Ltd. The share of foreign capital in the company amounts to about 27 per cent.

At present LOMO manufactures about 200 commodities, mainly for medical institutions, and also control and measuring instruments. Among its products are instruments for missile guidance, as well as devices for space weaponry, and fine, complex mechanisms for the Navy and armoured units. LOMO designs and develops unique optical systems and instruments for self-guidance of shells which are on a par with the best world samples, as far as their tactical and technical characteristics are concerned. LOMO is regarded a worthy competitor by such optical giants as "Carl Zeiss" in Germany and "Olympus" in Japan. Its products are listed in the catalogue of the American company "Fisher".

Last year the then General Director of LOMO, I. Klebanov, left his post and became the Vice Governor of St.Petersburg. His place was taken by A. Kobitsky, who continued the course aimed at adapting the company to the new economic and social conditions. He pays considerable attention to the foreign-trade operations of the company. The list of the goods produced by LOMO includes about 120 types of competitive commodities. In 1997 LOMO sold goods to a sum of 186 million roubles, which is 35 per cent more than the figure for 1996. The improved financial situation enabled LOMO to invest more than 15 million roubles in the renovation of fixed assets and in buying land. At the end of the year the company increased wages for its employees by 40 per cent, on average. Due to a narrowing down of the domestic market, LOMO is out to move its products forward to the foreign market. This calls for their constant technical improvement and the fixing of competitive prices. Among the commodities supplied by LOMO are microscopes, endoscopes, instruments and devices for airfields, heads for self-guidance of missiles to be used in the army and navy and equipment for space exploration. Apart from that, LOMO also produces instruments for night vision and photo cameras. As for the latter, the most popular are "LOMO-Compact" cameras.

Some six years ago two Austrian students, Matias Vigl and Wolfgang Stranziger, bought two such cameras for 12 dollars. When they took pictures with them, they found that they were as close to life as possible, although they did not do anything special in terms of composition, focusing, etc. These photos could be arranged in an impressive collage. Soon, these cameras became so popular that those who worked with them professionally were called "lomographers". "Lomography" began to develop first in Europe, then in Russia. However, the popularity of this camera cannot influence the situation of the company, especially its financial position. This is why it puts the main emphasis on the production of medical equipment. Apart from microscopes, LOMO has another tender Ч for the production of flexible hermetic endoscopes, which is developed thanks to the investment made by the INTERROS Group. It is expected that some of the new products of LOMO will use fibre optical bunches and will not be inferior to any analogues made in other countries. At present LOMO manufactures a thousand traffic lights for St. Petersburg streets, which can be seen in broad daylight. LOMO also produces light diodes with a service life of about 100,000 hours, whose brightness could well be compared with that of the Sun.

The export activity of LOMO is a good indicator of its operation. In 1996, the volume of exported commodities amounted to three million dollars, whereas last year it reached 15 million roubles. The volume of exported medical equipment increased five times, microscopes Ч 1.5 times, optical devices made to orders from foreign firms Ч twice, spectral instruments Ч eight times, cameras Ч three times. Besides such traditional importers of LOMO products, as Germany and Britain, new countries appeared Ч China, Canada and those in Southeast Asia. It is planned to increase export to the North American market.

LOMO pays considerable attention to improving the quality of its goods and marketing operations.