When Tim Levindofske joined Reichert Inc. a decade ago, the Depew optical equipment maker

was in a bind.

Its owner, Leica Microsystems, wanted to sell the business &#8212 a process that would take

two years before managers backed by Buffalo private equity firm Summer Street Capital Partners

agreed to a deal in 2002. In the meantime, the Walden Avenue operation was starved for

capital.

&#8220It was going the way of the dodo bird back then,&#8221 said Levindofske,

Reichert&#8217s president and chief operating officer. &#8220It was basically a red-headed

stepchild for Leica.&#8221

But now, after nearly eight years of ownership under Summer Street and now Chicago-based

Beeken Petty O&#8217Keefe & Co., a pair of private-equity firms that pumped much-needed

capital into the business, Levindofske and other Reichert executives are setting their sights

on broadening the optical products maker&#8217s scope.

Sales over the last decade have more than tripled and are expected to reach $50 million

this year, aided in part by four acquisitions that Reichert has made over the last four years

to expand its product line.

Employment at Reichert&#8217s local factory, which nearly doubled in size following a move

across Walden Avenue two years ago, has grown from about 100 in 2000 to slightly more than 130

today.

And Jerry C. Cirino, a veteran medical industry executive who joined Reichert as its

chairman in June and took on added duties as chief executive officer in September, is focused

on pushing the company into new segments of the ophthalmic products market.

Reichert&#8217s current line of 35 products are mainly used by opticians and

ophthalmologists to test the vision of their patients and diagnose other conditions, such as

glaucoma. Its patented Phoroptor &#8212 the multi-lensed contraption opticians use to discover

what correction a patient&#8217s vision needs by flicking different strength lenses back and

forth and asking &#8220Is this better?&#8221 &#8212 is a mainstay in the offices of eye care

providers, accounting for about a quarter of Reichert&#8217s sales.

Its tonometers, used to test for glaucoma either through a puff of air onto the eye or by

gently touching the eye&#8217s surface with a specialized instrument, also are big sellers.

The versions that use the puff of air account for about a third of Reichert&#8217s sales.

But Cirino&#8217s vision is to push Reichert into other segments of the optical market,

adding products for what he calls the faster-growing &#8220therapeutic side&#8221 of the

industry, such as instruments used in eye surgery and related consumable supplies.

&#8220It&#8217s just an opportunity to put another leg on the stool,&#8221 said Cirino,

adding that Reichert is looking at deals that range from outright acquisitions, obtaining a

particular product line or even gaining the rights to manufacture a particular product.

With financing still tight, Cirino said it&#8217s helpful to have the backing of Beeken

Petty, a deep-pocketed private equity firm that focuses on medical companies, as its majority

owner since January 2007. But he also says the hunt for deals isn&#8217t easy, since asking

prices haven&#8217t dropped much, despite the recession.

&#8220We&#8217ve got to look at quality deals,&#8221 he said. &#8220We&#8217ve got to look

at the right price on deals.&#8221

Acquisitions already have helped Reichert broaden its product line, from around six core

products a decade ago to roughly 35 today, including a high-tech ClearChart2 eye chart system

that also lets opticians call display eye-related medical information and even a cartoon for

restless children on its LCD screen.

One of the biggest acquisitions came in 2006, when Reichert bought a line of hand-held

contact glaucoma testing devices from medical device maker Medtronic.

Its latest was an October deal to buy a line of products used to diagnose macular

degeneration from an Israeli company, Notal Vision. &#8220That was us reaching out into a

different area,&#8221 Levindofske said.

While Reichert has been branching out with new products, the company also has been bringing

more of its production closer to home.

A decade ago, most of the components used in Reichert&#8217s instruments were made outside

of Western New York. Now, through a concerted effort to bring more of its supply base closer

to home, Levindofske said roughly 80 percent of Reichert&#8217s components are made locally.

&#8220You can have a closer relationship [with the supplier],&#8221 Levindofske said.

&#8220You can maintain your quality. If there&#8217s a problem, you can hop in the car and

drive five minutes to find out what&#8217s going on.&#8221

That type of increased local purchasing only increases the contribution that Reichert makes

to the local economy, said Andrew J. Rudnick, the president of the Buffalo Niagara

Partnership.

&#8220It has tremendous impact,&#8221 Rudnick said. &#8220All of those suppliers are part

of an advanced manufacturing cluster. It&#8217s the region alone that benefits from that

cluster.&#8221

Reichert also shows how advanced manufacturing can be viable in the Buffalo Niagara region,

especially for companies that need highly trained workers and have demanding quality

standards.

&#8220It&#8217s a very high skill set for the quality,&#8221 Levindofske said of

Reichert&#8217s workers, which include about 50 members of the United Steelworkers union.

&#8220We consider them more like technicians than assemblers.&#8221

At a time when less-skilled manufacturing is fleeing for low-cost areas, such as China,

local economic development officials and economists believe that production work that requires

higher skills &#8212 and also higher pay for workers &#8212 can continue to be competitive in

the region.

&#8220When we talk about advanced manufacturing, [Reichert is] the poster child for

that,&#8221 Rudnick said.

About 95 percent of Reichert&#8217s products are manufactured at its Depew factory, making

it one of the biggest &#8212 if not the biggest &#8212 manufacturer of ophthalmic devices in

the United States, Cirino said.

&#8220With our U.S. customers, we should probably promote that more strongly,&#8221 he

said.

While many of Reichert&#8217s products can last for decades &#8212 its Phoroptor can last

as long as 40 years &#8212 the company regularly adds technological advancements to its latest

models. With the push building toward electronic medical records, Reichert is working to add

features to its products that will allow the devices to transfer their data digitally.

&#8220You&#8217ve got to be continually investing,&#8221 he says. &#8220What are you going

to do next?&#8221