Press release of 4 hours ago

All your eyeglasses R us

The Commerce Commission has received two applications from lens processing firm Essilor New Zealand Limited seeking clearance to acquire competitors.

Essilor is seeking clearance to acquire all shares of Prolab (Wellington) Limited, and up to 100 per cent of shares of Optical Laboratories NZ Limited.

Essilor has a variety of activities in New Zealand including the supply of finished and unfinished lenses, and lens processing, in particular the edging and fitting of lenses.

Prolab is a Wellington based optical laboratory lens processor. In addition to edging and fitting lenses, Problab also carries out grinding and coating.

Optical is a Christchurch based lens processing company that grinds, coats, tints and edges lenses. Optical also sells stock lenses.

The commission said it will examine the application to determine whether the acquisitions would substantially lessen competition.