Gooch & Housego (GHH) RNS Announcements

Gooch & Housego PLC is a United Kingdom-based photonics engineering company. The Company and its subsidiaries are manufacturers of specialist optoelectronic components, materials and systems, and specialist instrumentation and life sciences devices. The Company’s business is divided into three market sectors: industrial, aerospace and defense, and life sciences/bio photonics. The industrial segment primarily comprises the industrial laser market for use in the semiconductor and microelectronic industries, but also includes other industrial applications such as metrology, telecommunications, and scientific research. It is a designer and manufacturer of precision-optical components, pump lasers, and fiber-optic couplers for inertial navigation systems used in avionics and defense. The Company also specializes in the custom designing and manufacturing of precision polymer optics for use in the biomedical, machine vision and analytical instrument markets.

It is a designer and manufacturer of precision-optical components, pump lasers, and fiber-optic couplers for inertial navigation systems used in avionics and defence.

In 1948, after the war ended, Archie and Leslie founded their own optics fabrication company, Gooch & Housego (G&H), in Ilminster. It was a modest operation, primarily focused on creating devices such as prisms, lenses, mirrors, and windows for larger manufacturers to use in scientific instruments.

When Gooch & Housego was founded 75 years ago in a quiet British town, no one could have imagined the modern global corporation it would become. The story of G&H begins with two individuals - Mr. Archie Gooch & Mr. Leslie Housego.

Archie was trained by the company, Barr and Stroud, where he worked on rangefinders and periscopes. During World War II, the Royal Air Force began to use radios in their bombers that utilized crystals requiring individuals with optical expertise to cut and polish quartz. Archie and Leslie began working on these radios at Standard Telephones and Cables (STC) in Greenwich, London, but were evacuated to Ilminster, Somerset to escape the Blitz.

In 1948, after the war ended, Archie and Leslie founded their own optics fabrication company, Gooch & Housego (G&H), in Ilminster. It was a modest operation, primarily focused on creating devices such as prisms, lenses, mirrors, and windows for larger manufacturers to use in scientific instruments. However, the founders had a clear vision for the company’s future: to be known for producing the best optical devices. Over the course of several decades, G&H experienced steady growth under their leadership.

The company listed on AIM in 1997 under the ticker GHH.