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10 Jun 2025
LaCroix Precision Optics invests $14M in Arkansas; Precision Optics Corp expands production in Massachusetts.
Two US companies specializing in precision optics manufacture have announced plans to expand domestic production, in response to growing customer demand.
LaCroix Precision Optics says it will be investing $13.8 million expanding its manufacturing operations in Batesville, Arkansas, while Precision Optics Corp (POC) is moving its corporate headquarters to free up more production space at its existing site in Gardner, Massachusetts.
Arkansas expansion
Family-run LaCroix, which makes spherical, aspherical, plano, and custom-coated optics including windows, wedges, prisms, and beam splitters, expects to create 107 new jobs over the next five years as a result of the expansion.
Founded in Chicago back in 1947 by Raymond LaCroix Sr and his son, the optics company fully relocated to Batesville in 1976. Defense-related applications are said to account for around one-third of the firm's sales, although it also sells into the medical, industrial, and scientific sectors.
Company president Kirk Warden said: “LaCroix Precision Optics is excited to expand our operations in Batesville, Arkansas to support a [ten-year] military contract that will help restore a critical supply chain to the US.
“This expansion will allow us to enhance our capabilities with advanced equipment and additional manufacturing space.”
LaCroix says that the expansion will see new equipment installed on its production floor, and create 18,750 square-feet of extra manufacturing space.
The latest investment represents the firm’s fifth expansion since its founding, and follows the addition of new optical assembly capabilities last year to provide a vertically integrated business model.
Construction work for the new expansion has now begun, with operations planned to start in December 2025.
Massachusetts move for POC
Meanwhile Massachusetts-based POC says it has signed a lease to move its corporate offices and engineering development to Littleton, around 30 miles closer to Boston and allowing it to free up more production capabilities in Gardner.
The company, which makes advanced optical instruments used across the medical, aerospace, and defense industries, is also responding to growing customer demand, with its production backlog said to have reached an all-time high at the end of March.
In early April, POC announced that it had executed a “main purchase agreement” with a leading aerospace company, and that to accelerate deliveries under that contract it had doubled clean room production line capacity to deliver a backlog valued at $6.6 million over the course of 12 months.
CEO Joe Forkey said of the latest move: “As our business has grown, it has become evident that we need to expand our production facilities in a cost-efficient manner to meet our growing backlog; and we need to access the best possible engineering talent that Massachusetts and Maine have to offer. Today’s announcement accomplishes both of these objectives.”
The switch means that POC’s new corporate headquarters will become 550 King St, Building A, Suite 100, in Littleton, effective August 1.
“This new facility in Littleton, along with a new facility in South Portland, Maine, also allows POC access to a broader engineering talent pool to execute on the company’s ongoing product development pipeline,” the firm added.
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