Sunagor

Sunagor

Type	Private company
Industry	Optics, Binoculars, Electronics
Founded	1948
Headquarters	Global
Number of employees	100 (2009)

Sunagor is a Japanese manufacturer and brand of optical products, founded in 1948. The company specialises in binoculars and has been manufacturing them for over 60 years. Sunagor advertises ultra high magnification zoom binoculars and in early 2009 Sunagor launched what they claim to be the world's most powerful commercially available model, 30-160x70. They have also been involved in the manufacture of telescopic lenses, as well as other camera accessories.

The company has representation worldwide but after being acquired by Trans-World Trading, moved its headquarters from Japan to London. Although, it still kept its manufacturing and R and D facilities in Japan.

History

Sunagor was founded in June 1948 in Japan. Over the ensuing two decades, Sunagor built itself up in Japan as a manufacturer of binoculars and associated accessories. Although Sunagor achieved variable success in Japan, it never moved outside of Japan’s boundaries and eventually growth stalled. In the early 1970s, the company was bought out privately by Trans-World Trading, who embarked on a plan for world wide development and distribution. Trans-World tried to build the brand up off the back of Sunagor’s precision Japanese image. The Brand received the most exposure in Europe and the U.K. where it became one of the biggest binoculars supplier to both DSG International (retailer) and Argos (retailer). Sunagor made their products available through mail order. They stocked various mail order houses, including Argos and Sears. In 1985, they also moved into press direct mail order, working closely with The Daily Mail as well as The Times, and also made regular appearances on the QVC shopping channel. In 2008 they employed Vyper Industries to operate their online sales via Amazon.com - U.K.

Products

• Telescopic lenses - Introduced in the 1970s as stand alone telescopic lenses (without producing the camera units) that could be attached to any single-lens reflex camera. These were phased out with the introduction of compact digital cameras in early 2000 and loss in popularity of SLRs.
• Compact zoom binoculars - These range from 18x to 110x magnification.
• Full zoom binoculars - These include fully waterproof models and rubber armoured models. Recently, Sunagor launched a model that they claim to be the world’s most powerful going up to 160x magnification with a diameter of 70mm objectives.

References