MEOPTA

Meopta is an optical company in the Czech Republic. They were established by Alois Mazurek and Alios Beneš as Optikotechna in Přerov in 1933, making lenses and condensers. We broaden their product range to include various photographic products and binoculars, among other things. After 1935, they expanded, producing optics for the Czechoslovakian army. During the occupation of World War II, the company carried on making military optical devices under the control of the occupiers. After the war, they were nationalised and the name was changed to Meopta (in English, mechanical optical manufacturing). After the end of the Warsaw Pact, production of military equipment decreased and in 1992 the company was denationalised. The new owners, a Czech family, had previously emigrated to the USA in 1946 and founded an optics-producing company called TCI New York Inc, known since 2005 as Meopta USA.