ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130117
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
Optical Cable Corp. said Thursday that the company has signed a contract with a major long-distance cable manufacturer in the Far East to produce 40 kilometers of 24-filament cable.
Roanoke County-based Optical Cable's product will appear under the other company's label in the company's catalog. Optical Cable President Robert Kopstein declined to name the buyer, citing competitive reasons.
The significance of the $300,000 contract is that private-label manufacture represents a new type of business for Optical Cable, Kopstein said. The company is looking for ways to cooperate with existing international cable producers rather than compete with them, he said.
Most international cable makers produce only one kind of gel-filled long-distance cable and don't have access to the indoor-outdoor type of fiber-optic cable that Optical Cable makes, Kopstein said.
Up to 40 percent of the cable that will be installed in the future will be used for many connections over short distances around cities, and Optical Cable's product fits nicely into that multibillion-dollar market, he said.
LENGTH: Short : 29 linesby CNB