Large-scale family-run German company (1953–2000)
Alexander Rodenstock's son Rolf Rodenstock took over the company in 1953, starting the rise of Rodenstock to a world-renowned major player in the optics industry. Since 1954, the company has increased its investment in public advertising in addition to ads in trade magazines for opticians and ophthalmologists.
In 1955, the company produced 5 million ophthalmic frames. Rodenstock continued to manufacture other optical devices, such as projection lenses for slide projectors (Splendar). In 1968, the company introduced the first photochromatic glasses in Europe, and from 1975 onwards, it produced the first plastic ophthalmic lenses in the world.
Between 1972 and 1983, the network of foreign sales corporations was further expanded. As early as 1950/51, Rolf Rodenstock co-founded the optical precision mechanics factory Industria Optica Rodenstock – Chile S.A; not as a subsidiary of Rodenstock in Germany, but rather as part of a private investment. Only later did Optische Werke G. Rodenstock KG gradually take over the Chilean manufacturer. It has been the market leader in the field of ophthalmic lenses and frames in Chile ever since.[4] In 1983, Randolf Rodenstock joined the group of shareholders at Optische Werke G. Rodenstock as a personally liable partner (general partner), leading the company together with his father Rolf Rodenstock.
In 1989, Rodenstock shifted the majority of its Munich production capabilities to its newly established serial production facilities in Thailand, and its production facilities in Ebersberg were moved to Malta. Between 1988 and 1989, revenues decreased by 10% from its previous €700 million. 1991 saw the introduction of the R logo and trademark. Between 1995 and 1996, the company built a new production facility for prescription lenses in Klatovy (Czech Republic). The Rodenstock Präzisionsoptik precision optics division, which includes the production of lenses for analog view cameras, enlargers, and digital view cameras with high-resolution digital camera backs (e.g. the 1997 Apo-Sironar digital) was spun off in 1996 as Rodenstock Photo Optics, a new company and in 2000, it was acquired by Göttingen-based Linos Photonics AG.[5]
