Newport history

Just a few years earlier, in 1960, physicist Theodore Harold Maiman had invented the first operable laser, spurring worldwide interest in the technology.

1969: The company is founded.

He received a patent on a laser sight in 1979, but the initial version was far too cumbersome to have commercial value.

Chang stepped down as president and CEO in early 1988, indicating that he had been interested in leaving for some time, but only now was he comfortable, having assembled the management team and operational systems needed to sustain the company's long-term growth.

In 1991 Newport moved its headquarters to Irvine, California, and reinstated the CEO position, naming 59-year-old Richard E. Schmidt to assume the post.

To turn around Newport Schmidt consolidated the European operations, reducing the number of segments from seven to three. As a result of these and other cost-cutting measures, as well as a rebounding economy, Newport returned to profitability in 1994, earning $3.3 million on sales of $85.6 million.

A few months before his appointment in 1996, Newport completed another acquisition, adding Minneapolis-based MikroPrecision Instruments, Inc. to increase its presence in the semiconductor equipment and computer peripherals arena.

The fiber-optics communications sector was strengthened further with the October 1998 acquisition of Environmental Optical Sensors, Inc., maker of high-precision assembly and test equipment for the market.

Newport lost $6.3 million in 2001 and more than $100 million a year later.

In 2009, to provide synergy to its operations, NEWPORT opened an aggregate recycling and processing operation, located in Westford, Massachusetts – in the Nations’ oldest active granite quarry.

In 2017, NEWPORT expanded its aggregate materials operation to include granite mining, and stone manufacturing out of its owned quarry.

In 2020, after a 10 year permit and legal process, NEWPORT opened its asphalt manufacturing facility, located in Westford Massachusetts.