Cagnes : Photonetics settles in Thomson-CSF premises

The specialist of components for very high throughput fiber-optic instruments, the company invests 100 million francs in a conception and manufacturing plant (400 jobs within two years).

What a great beginning of the year for the high-tech French Riviera! /www.photonetics.com">Photonetics, a branch of the Danish GN Nettest, a company on the market of fiberoptic networks, has announced the buying up of Thomson-CSF premises (36.000 m2) in Cagnes-sur-mer. They have also great ambitions : the creation of a conception and manufacturing unity of tools and instruments for high throughput optical networks.250 people before the end of the yearThis will be the second unity of Photonetics which already owns a production unity of 500 people in Marly-le-Roi. As the activity of the company has increased twofold in one year, Hervé Arditty, the CEO founder (the company was created in 1978), has chosen a settlement in south France, in the Telecom Valley.Cagnes-sur-mer should rapidly rise in popularity : the unity should be ready in the end 2001, with 250 people, a staff which should up to 400 within two years. Part of the recruitment should be done on the spot.A 100 million francs investmentThomson-CSF former premises can easily meet such an ambition. Desperately empty since the late eighties, they had accommodated some 1.200 people before Thomson decided to leave for Sophia Antipolis. The existing buildings (36.000 m2) will be restored. A 1.400 m2 extension has been asked for (a building consent has been tabled late September 2000 in Cagnes-sur-mer city hall).A whole total investment was up to 100 million francs : 20 million for the buying up of premises and 80 million francs for the restoration, the extension and the layout.DWDM : a technology which boosts the fiber-opticsNot very known to the general audience, the French Photonetics is now on a very buoyant market : instruments and components for fibe-roptic networks dedicated to telecommunications. It has particularly built (that's its strong point) ' vital products of control for the DWDM technology, a technology which considerably increases the transmission capacity of fiber-optic networks. In simple terms, the DWDM technology transforms fiber-optics in multi-ways channels thanks to the use of different wavelengths in order to make separated data trains circulate simultaneously.'This allows to have an access to the very high throughput and to envisage about ten million telephonic communications on one single fibre.Recently taken over by the Danish GN NettestWhile data transmission volumes are exploding, Photonetics owns key technologies in order to face the new telecom needs. Such a strategic position explains the takeover by Danish GN Nettest (Grand Nordic) for 1 billion francs during the last three months of 2000. This takeover occurred after they decided to settle in Cagnes-sur-mer.With Photonetics and its new conception unity on the French Riviera, GN Nettest expects to become the main provider of control systems and equipments for the production of fiber-optics and the installation fiber-optic cables. A huge market. Besides, Grand Nordic wants its branch to be listed on the stock exchange during the first three months of year 2001. Concerning the new settlement on the French Riviera, it reinforces the Telecom Valley where, among others, the biggest world manufacturers (Alcatel, Nortel, Cisco, Lucent Technologies, Marconi) are already present.