Anchor away for Edmund Scientific

You can have too much of a good thing. And so Barrington, NJ-based Edmund Optics launched an overstocks catalog, Anchor Optical Surplus. The company, which sells optical and imaging components such as prisms, lenses, and spectrometers to semiconductor, telecommunication, and medical professionals through its Edmund Industrial Optics catalog, mailed 35,000 copies of Anchor in November to house file and rented names.

The 40-page, two-color Anchor catalog complement the Anchor Optical Website, which launches this month. Although the new title targets the research and development market, including design engineers and universities, vice president of marketing Nicole Edmund expects it to attract hobbyists as well. Edmund Optics used to produce a science hobbyists catalog, Edmund Scientific; it sold the title to Science Kit & Boreal Laboratories (SK), a division of laboratory supplies cataloger VWR Scientific products, in January 2001.

To promote the catalog and site, Edmund is listing Anchor in online directories with optical industry sites and running space ads in optical trade magazines. The catalog will mail once a year. The next mailing is planned for September, with a projected 10% circulation increase.