Leupold had a bit of a change in personnel in recent years, partly because a good number of people retired (as John mentioned) and partly because quite a few experienced people went to work for Sig, who opened their shop a few miles down the road. Now that Crimson Trace is in the scope making business as well, I would not be surprised if they pilfered some people from Leupols and/or Sig.
From a consumer standpoint, it is a good thing to have three companies like this all next to each other. They feed off of the same pool of employees and, having several companies in the same area encourages people from other parts of the country to move to the area since there is a good job market.
Greater Portland area has quite a lot of optics and electro-optics companies within a 100 miles from each other: Leupold, Sig, Crimson Trace, FLIR, Collins Aerospace plus all the EO shops in Hood River. There are a few smaller outfits as well, like Kruger and some other OEM shops and a medical imaging company or two.
This kind of competition is not great for Leupold in the short term, but is probably healthy in the long term (general disclaimer: I know some of these people because of my dayjob and some because of my hobbies. The two often overlap).
