Swarovski Optik UK (London)

Part of the Swarovski Crystal Business Group, Swarovski Optik (or Optics in the UK) is one of the ‘Big 3’ binocular and telescope brands selling to birdwatchers in the UK along with Leica and Zeiss. Their newer top-of-the-range binocular models can now reach £2000 – but sales to birders make up only a fraction of the company’s revenue. As first revealed in Ethical Consumer’s 2016 Report “Shooting Wildlife” and confirmed in the two follow-up Reports (2018’s ‘Shooting Wildlife II’ and 2021’s ‘Shooting Wildlife III‘) a far larger target market is selling riflescopes and thermal imagers to shooters. In 2021 Ethical Consumer reported in a profile of Swarovski Optik that “The Swarovski Optik North America Director of Communication hosted the hunting show Swarovski Optik Quests that was aired on The Outdoor Channel, and Swarovski also participated in various hunting and arms fairs, including the (cancelled) 2020 National Rifle Association exhibition.” In 2024 they don’t hide their hunting links, with a section devoted to Hunting (ie shooting) under which is the remarkable claim that along with birders etc the people who kill wildlife are “nature lovers who are not only a part of Generation Nature, but also an essential cornerstone of our success.” They are also regulars at hunting lobbyists GWCT’s Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace.