Profile: Meade Instruments Corp. (MEAD.O)

Meade Instruments Corp. (Meade) is a consumer optics company that designs, manufactures, imports and distributes telescopes, telescope accessories, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and other consumer optical products. The Company's brands, include Meade and Coronado. It offers numerous telescope, and binocular models, as well as accessory products for amateur astronomy and sporting goods consumers. The Company’s telescopes range in aperture from under 2 inches to 16 inches. The Company is a supplier of consumer optics retailers, such as Costco, Sam’s Club and Target, as well as a number of specialty dealers worldwide. The Company manufactures a range of advanced astronomical telescopes. Parts and components for the advanced telescopes are manufactured and assembled in the Company’s United States and Mexico facilities. On January 27, 2009, the Company sold its European distribution operations. On April 17, 2008, the Company sold its Weaver brand to Ammunition Accessories, Inc. On June 12, 2008, the Company sold its Redfield brand to Leupold & Stevens, Inc.

In the United States and Canada, the Company distributes its products through a network of more than 400 specialty retailers, distributors and mass merchandisers, which offer the Company’s products in more than 5,000 retail store locations. The Company also sells certain of its products to selected national mail order dealers. Meade also sells its products internationally through a network of over 40 foreign distributors, many of which service dealer locations in their respective countries. The Company offers a range of binoculars from small aperture theater glasses to full-size waterproof roof-prism glasses.

The Company’s products include its LX series advanced coma free (ACF) and Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes. The LX telescope incorporates optical systems that provide resolution, contrast and light transmission and offers the astronomers a range of products, from Autostar-controlled LX90GPS, to LX200 lines. The Company's 50 millimeter to 130 millimeter refracting, reflecting and spotting scopes and the ETX series telescopes include many of the features of the advanced telescopes. The Company offers several variations of its small refracting and reflecting telescopes for distribution on a semi-exclusive basis to specific specialty retailers. The Company also has a solar viewing telescope, the Coronado Personal Solar Telescope (PST).

The Company sells a range of consumer binoculars through its domestic distribution network under the Meade brand name. The binoculars sold by the Company are purchased from manufacturers outside the United States. The Company also offers accessories for each of its principal product lines that range from additional eyepieces and multi-media celestial observation guides to software.

Meade competes with SW Technology Corporation, Bushnell Performance Optics, Inc., Celestron, Vixen Optical Industries, Ltd., Nikon Inc. and Pentax Corporation.