EaseVision.com – News and gossips of vision care and optical industry

As a major brand under Luxottica, Sunglass Hut is going to expand its business in the Philippines and South Africa. The philosophy of increasing sales through entering a new market is being well used by Luxottica. There were extra testimonies of this strategy in Luxottica. In 2008, Luxottica got into the Indian market by opening Sunglass Hut stores. Moreover, Luxottica has recently entered the Australian market through the Myer Department store network. 

Luxottica claimed that it will open 65 Sunglass Hut stores in Austria within the Myer Department store network. However, the firm is not satisfied that it is going to enter the Philippines market and expand its business in the Republic of South Africa. In the Philippines, Sunglass Hut has an agreement with Meera Enterprises Inc., which is the country’s leading distribution and retail sports & lifestyle company. These two steps will be conducted through two separate agreements. 

According to CEO of Luxottica, Asia Pacific & South Africa named Chris Beer, these actions or agreements are part of Luxottica’s ambition to expand its existence in the Asia-Pacific region. Trough opening Sunglass Hut stores, the company also shows its determination to further promote this brand, which has been the leading sunglass specialty retailer in the world. 

In fact, Luxottica considers the expansion of the Sunglass Hut business as part of the firm’s global growth strategy. In this consideration, recent movements from Luxottica are just a small part of this overall strategy. As a global leader in the design, manufacturing and distribution of fashion, luxury and sports eyewear, Luxottica has long emphasized on its brand of Sunglass Hut. 

And the wide spread of Sunglass Hut in these countries is a good testimony to the strength of this brand. Other advantages of Sunglass Hut also involve product range, high level of product knowledge and personal service. Officials of Luxottica are expecting to see continued growth of Sunglass Hut in these new markets. 

In South Africa, Sunglass Hut will be introduced into the network of Edgars Department Store, which is a leading retail department store in the country and maintains 150 stores.

Some employees and members of Clear One may be anxious due to a statement made by the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer Patricia Gibford. He announced that the company planned to realign its workforce as well as further streamline its operations, due to the current depressed economy. Clear One Health Plans, Inc. now covers a wide range of businesses, focusing on health plans catering employers, providers as well as consumers. 

Through out the West, Clear One Health Plans provides a couple of health insurance types to individual customers or companies, such as Medicare Advantage plans, commercial plans, individual plans and administrative services. Other groups of people such as self-funded employers, associations, Taft-Hartley Trusts and Chamber of Commerce can also get appropriate programs from Clear One Health Plans, including life, disability, dental, vision and voluntary benefits programs. Moreover, Clear One also pays much attention to promote benefits programs, health insurance and ancillary plans for community-based employees. 

The great firm is now under the influence of the depressed global economy. It is the weaker market conditions that force Clear One officials to make such a decision. Membership of Clear One has been significantly decreased resulted from the economic situation.

This decrease in membership directly led to the decision of staff reduction made by the management team of Clear One. According to Patricia Gibford, the implementation of staff reduction is the most effective way to deal with the current situation of the company. 

It is true that staff reduction is difficult to implement in any company. Clear One has long been promoting and maintaining its members’ peace and confidence in the company’s health care coverage. Top officials in Clear One believe that staff reduction under such an economic situation is essential to improve the company’s operational efficiency as well as maintain its financial strength. 

In detail, the staff reduction plan will cut off about 25 positions throughout the company, focusing on non-customer services roles. However, both management and executive staff will be affected. This plan will finish by December 31, 2009.

Some one may think it is crazy that Oakley is going to announce plans for a line of $4,000 sunglasses under such an economic situation. It is a whole line, rather than a single pair. With $4,000, a customer can land a luxurious week in Europe, or get an Armani 100% cashmere overcoat or a diamond ring from Tiffany’s. A common doubt in the industry is that whether these $4,000 sunglasses can attract enough customers. 

Before the availability of the ultra-premium Oakley Elite C Six, the company’s costliest line is the $600 Pit Boss. Another fact is that the new line is going to be the most expensive line in the sunglass industry, estimated by sporting goods gurus and sports marketing experts. Some of them are still wondering that what kind of benefits or quality will be offered by $4,000 sunglasses. 

What’s more confusing to individuals in this field, the company does not expect to make profit on this luxurious line, according to Oakley CEO Colin Baden. On the other hand, the market of luxury products is estimated to be $20 billion, although it is spiraling downturn due to the current economic recession. Statistics from Bain & Co show that luxury-products industry has fell by 8% in 2009. 

Stated by Baden, the firm launches the $4,000 sunglasses line only because it is brand-positive. He also says that Oakley just wants to flex its R&D muscle and thumb its nose at other expensive eyewear markers. It is Oakley being Oakley. 

According to Oakley’s advanced product development chief named Neil Ferrier, special designed and crafted Oakley Elite C Six sunglasses will be worth its price. The frames are more flexible and comfortable for athletes because they are made of approximately 80 layers of costly carbon fiber, which is more commonly used in aerospace and motor sports industries. Neil Ferrier estimates that about 90 hours of machine time are needed for each pair of Oakley Elite C Six sunglasses. 

Oakley will produce at most 200 pairs of Oakley Elite C Six sunglasses over the next year, which will be distributed by its retailers and designer sunglasses boutiques.

According to figures of Essilor in third-quarter, the company continues to grow bigger and stronger. Over the past years, Essilor has made several acquisitions, which are considered to greatly contribute to the company’s overall performance. 

As the world’s largest maker of corrective lenses, Essilor International recently posted that the firm had gained a 6.3% sales growth in the third quarter. In addition, the company also predicted a better operating margin in 2009. Although the sales figure was below forecast, it was a significant increase. 

Greatly contributed by acquisitions, the quarterly sales reached 805 million euros. And the number from a Reuter poll among eight analysts averaged 822.2 million euros. This increase in sales significantly benefited from growth in Asia’s emerging economies. Essilor had launched specially adapted lenses in these countries. 

Sales in Europe and the United States have been traditionally main contributors to the performance of Essilor. However, sales in Spain only showed an upturn while in Nordic countries the demand was still lingering. The sales of the first nine months rose 8.4% to 2.5 billion euros. 

In January this year, Essilor split the posts of chairman and chief executive. Xavier remained chairman and the former chief operating officer Hubert Sagnieres served as CEO. Now promoting brands including Varilux and Crizal, Essilor had forecast an increase in sales this year. The company also estimated an improvement in operating margin. In the first half year, Essilor gained an 18.2 operating margin, which was better than expected. 

There is strong support for Essilor’s confidence and prospects. The first aspect is the firm’s product launches and bolt-on acquisitions. Moreover, there are promising signs of Essilor’s stocks. While stocks of Hoya of Japan and Carl Zeiss of Germany closed down, the stock of Essilor has gained more than a fifth of its value this year.

It is reported that Novartis AG gained a 1% increase of net profit in the third-quarter this year. As a drug maker, Novartis has benefit from increased sales from its pharmaceuticals division. According to figures released by Novartis, the profit of this third-quarter reached $2.1 billion, compared to $2 billion in the same period in 2008. 

What’s more, the net sales of the third quarter were $11.1 billion. Compared to $10.7 billion in the same quarter of the last year, there was a 3% increase. And this increase had been offset by the weakness of dollar in the currency markets. Without this effect, the actually increase could reach 7%. 

In fact, increases in both net sales and net profit mainly came from the great performance of Novartis’s pharmaceuticals business. According to estimation made by the company, there are about 90 million to 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine that will be produced by the end of the year. 

The huge production of swine flu vaccine is expected to bring an extra of around $400 million to $700 million to the net sales in the fourth quarter. Actually this significant benefit was triggered by the approval in the US and Europe for Novartis’ swine flu vaccine. 

This approval was only one of the key approvals of the company in 2009. According to Chief Executive Daniel Vasella, the firm’s great investments in R&D had shown excellent results, especially the anti-cancer therapy Afinitor and the biotechnology medicine Ilaris. 

However, there were still negative signs underlying the encouraging profit. An eye care company Alcon under Novartis actually greatly offset the overall profits of the firm. Alcon conducted a research and development project in this year. In addition, Novartis also suffered increased financing costs and a higher tax rate.

Vision-Ease Lens is one of the main players on the optical lens market. Now the firm is announcing a thinner and light lens product named Thindex. This new line from Vision-Ease is claimed to offer a higher ABBE value. And Thindex is going to be a new player in the 1.70 world.

 Headquartered in Ramsey, Minn, Vision-Ease manufactures a wide range of quality lenses, including LifeRx light-responsive lenses, Coppertone polarized lenses, SunRx polarized lenses as well as Illumina progressive line-free lenses. The release of Thindex further expands Vision-Ease’s business range. Vision Ease maintains a variety of sales channels, such as independent opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists, retail chains and dispensing markets all over the country.

 According to the senior product manager of Vision-Ease Lens (VEL) named John Bator, lenses from the company can meet the lens needs of customers towards changing fashion and comfort. And the coming Thindex 1.70 high index lens will provide further benefits. 

These new Thindex 1.70 high index lenses will be formally released on Nov. 16^th. As mentioned before, Thindex has basic features as thin and lightweight comfort. These lenses are available in several styles such as A SFSV, A FSV SuperHydro AR and a Novella Short Corridor progressive. 

Available in various powers and bases, each style of Thindex lenses has its own particular features. For instance, the Novella Short Corridor Progressive provides a 120 degree far vision field as well as unmatched comfort. Equipped with a soft design, this type of Thindex lenses offers a smooth power transition. 

Several coatings can be applied to types of Thindex lenses. SuperHydro anti-reflective coating can provide sharper night vision and reduce glare. At the same time, this coating also offers effective liquid repellence, high abrasion resistance and anti-static properties. Another coating called oleophobic coating is capable of resisting smudges and oil. 

Featuring a higher ABBE value which reduces chromatic aberration, Thindex 1.70 lenses are thinner and lighter than 1.67 lenses and 1.74 high index lenses.

There will be a new recapitalization within Safilo. Currently the company has a total net debt of 590 million euros. What’s more serious, Safilo has still suffered falling preliminary third-quarter results that both the turnover and core profit were much lower than the numbers of the same period last year. The core profit of this third-quarter was only 3.5 million, compared to 16.7 million a year ago. In addition, orders for the first two weeks of October suffered a 12.5% decrease compared with the same period of the last year. 

During the conference call with analysts, Chief Executive of Safilo Roberto Vedovotto also confessed that the operating performance of the group was very weak in October. Safilo has been a great victim of the global economic downturn. The sales of the company have greatly decreased during the last year. The firm had been long as the world’s second largest eye wear maker. But now, Safilo needs a large funds inflow in order to guarantee its survival. 

Currently, Safilo Chairman Vittorio Tabacchi’s family owns about 40% stake of the company. After the capital reconstruction, this number will be reduced to only 10%. The big buyer is Hal Investments, which is a Dutch shareholder. Hal Investments mainly focus on optical retail chain operators such as Pearle Europe and Grand Vision. 

Hal Investments only holds 2% of Safilo but its share will reach 49.99% in the near future. Hal is the main player that it will first buy Safilo stock for 13 million euros, which triggers a further investment of 250 million euros from Hal, Banca IMI and UniCredit. Moreover, Hal will buy Safilo’s non-core and loss-making retail chains in Spain, Australia and China for about 20 million euros. As a result, Safilo will receive a total of 283 million euro funds inflow. And it is said that the company will use about 185 million to repay its debt. 

After such a reconstruction, Safilo itself is expected to concentrate on production and its licenses, while Hal would focus on distribution.

Vision Monday reported some new actions from the VSP recently. VSP has long been the largest managed vision care provider in both Washington and nationwide in the United States. VSP has maintained contractual cooperation with many independent labs across the country. However, the firm announced that it would take away contracts from certain labs. 

This action from VSP has scared many labs that they are likely to be forced out of business. However, it is unclear that which and how many independent labs will lose their VSP contracts. Officials from VSP’s Lab operations only stated that some factors of an independent lab will be considered, including the amount of jobs processes, technical capabilities and geographic locations. 

Among independent VSP labs, Nouveau Vision is a typical one that voices its complaints towards the action from VSP. As a family-owned optical lens laboratory in Redmond, Nouveau Vision is at the risk of being kicked out by VSP. Unlike other independent labs, Nouveau Vision has taken some actions that it has filled a lawsuit claiming “insurance code and potential antitrust violations”. 

During the long cooperation with VSP, Nouveau Vision as a small lab has always been very responsive to customers. With the information of being delisted by VSP, the owner of Nouveau Vision filled the complaint. According to Vision Monday, VSP respectfully disagrees with the allegations with the state of Washington Commissioner of Insurance raised by Nouveau Vision. But VSP is willing to maintain proper exchanges with the lab of this matter. 

Actually the resistance from Nouveau Vision has more significance according to Vision Monday. The optical industry has now been dominated by several giants. Just in this year, the France-based company Essilor partnered with VSP and bought McCleod. Essilor has become a dominant player in the United States, being expected to gain nearly complete market control in many states including Washington. This control of the vision care industry by 2-3 greedy companies and their collaboration are believed to affect the interest of customers.

Oakley has several new lines for 2009 that are more than mortal. One of the most outstanding product lines from Oakley in this year is the outrageous C SIC sunglasses. This type of glasses is quite an elite line. The most surprising factor is its price that each pair of C SIX sunglasses costs $4,500. This usually unaffordable price enables C SIX line to stay in a high end on the market. 

In addition, C SIX sunglasses in a high price do offer exclusive benefits. The first consideration should be given to the technology of its lenses. Lenses of C SIX glasses use Oakley’s panoply of optical techniques including XYZ lens geometry, iridium coatings as well as hydrophobic or oleophobic surface treatments. The second feature of C SIX glasses is their special frames. These sunglasses are equipped with carbon fiber frame CNC that is machined from a single chunk of composite. 

C SIX line from Oakley uses the carbon fiber in a special way. These sunglasses have diamond-tipped cutting bits slice across the fibers, which design grants them a distinctive look. C SIX glasses also provide titanium hinge assemblies which keep up the high-tech look and feel. Furthermore, the temples are allowed to be slightly flexible. 

The C SIX line also offers a less outrageous version named C SIX Aluminum, which only charges $1,500 each pair. Pit Boss is another elite line option from Oakley. This style uses Oakley’s O Matter moulded frame design. What’s more, Pit Boss glasses cost still $595 per pair. The Pit Boss line applies specially shaped titanium outer plates that perfectly match the rest of the frame.

In addition, the Oakley family still provides more fashionable options, such as Monster Dog and Straight Jacket.

There is an ongoing study about LASIK surgery in the United States now. Launched by the US Food and Drug Administration, the LASIK Quality of Life Collaboration Project has three phases. With the collaboration with the National Eye Institute and the US Department of Defense, FDA launched this research with the purpose to evaluate the quality of life problems in those people who have received LASIK procedure. 

LASIK is widely performed to permanently correct patient’s refractive errors through reshaping the cornea of the eye. These patients mostly need not to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses any more after the surgery. However, LASIK is not perfect that complications such as blurry vision and dry eye are potential postoperatively. And the project launched by FDA just aims at establishing the proportion of LASIK patients suffering from these complications or side effects. 

The project was announced to have three phases. Beginning from July 2009, the first phase designs a web-based quality of life questionnaire. Phase 2 will involve some patients who have received LASIK at the Navy Refractive Surgery Center and evaluate their life quality and satisfaction with the surgery. Moreover, the third phase will conduct the study in the general popular through a multi-center clinical trial. 

FDA initially conceived this study with great expectations. From the results of the LASIK Quality of Life Collaboration Project, factors potentially affecting post-LASIK quality of life can be published. As a result, those potential risk factors can be decreased to some degree. The study is also expected to enhance the public understanding of the risks of LASIK procedure. 

FDA has also inspected many LASIK surgery centers in the country. The result is that some centers have inadequate adverse event reporting systems. These centers use improper ways to collect and report adverse events about their LASIK cases. Since there are potential risks of the surgery, ambulatory LASIK centers in US are required by law to maintain a robust reporting system. And those inadequate centers have received warning letters sent by FDA.