This is a letter I wanted the send to every Doctor and Optician in America. But, I am not sure how it would be perceived so I thought I would see how it went over on here before I put my name on it and sent it out. This Should Be a Simple Question!!!
Essilor: Friend or Foe?
If we connect all of the dots in this puzzle the answer to the question should be quick and simple. I will not give my answer, (to remain politically correct) I am only going to give you the dots to connect.
Who is Essilor? According to Wikipedia, Essilor International S.A. is a French company that produces ophthalmic lenses along with ophthalmic optical equipment. It is based in Paris, France.
Who is Essilor, really? Lets start with the optical equipment side first. In 2008 Essilor acquires Satisloh. Satisloh manufactures and markets anti-reflective coating units and digital surfacing machines, as well as consumables. In 2005 Essilor acquires National Optronics, Founded in 1979, National Optronics designs and manufactures precision edging systems. Essilor also owns the majority of DAC Vision, a leading supplier of consumables in the optical industry. Also in their arsenal are several lab software companies including Optifacts, Omics, VisionStar, and Visual Lab Pro.
Next we will look at the lenses. Currently the lens companies completely owned by Essilor include: Silor, Signet Armolite, KBCO, Specialty, Gentex, Polycore, and Shore Lens. Lens companies partially owned by Essilor include: Transitions, Nikon, X-Cel, and Shamir. Common brand names you will recognize include: Varilux, Crizal, Experio, Kodak, Definity, and Polaroid. Essilor also owns Nassau Lens Company, which can fall in both the lens and labs category.
Lets now take a look at the lab side. This to me is the scariest part, not because of the competition but because of the potential job loss in America. Currently Essilor owns all or a majority of nearly 170 labs in United States and this number changes every month. Unfortunately this will begin to dwindle with lab closings and consolidations. Many of the labs are being closed now or consolidated to a nearby lab. Eventually a large bulk of the surfacing work will move to overseas locations and most labs here in the US will become virtual labs. A virtual lab is a lab with customer service and finishing only, they bring in surfaced lenses from other locations. Obviously this is not publicized because retailers would just assume that when they are calling the lab it is a full service lab, this is becoming more and more popular with ALL of the big vendor labs, not just Essilor. This is the scary part. With currently over 12,000 employees in North America with Essilor, this number would drop dramatically with the transfer of surface work to other countries. This is evident with nearly 22,000 employees in Asia and surrounding countries. It seems to have started with a contract with Wal-Mart, who then closed their lab in Ohio costing over 650 jobs. Essilor has a large lab in Mexico that produces a large percentage of the Wal-Mart Vision Center lenses. To make matters worse they are now teaming up with Lenscrafters. Here is a direct quote from the President and CEO of Essilor of America “We are scoring points with large accounts, with contracts. You’ve covered our development with Lenscrafters with the anti-reflective technology. That’s a big part of the market that was really behind, because of their one-hour positioning. We started with 250 machines at Lenscrafters stores, and now we’ve added another 230, so it’s 480 in total. It’s an important lift in the AR market. We’re finding good ways to partner with other large accounts. With Costco we’ve been their provider of progressives. We have a unique product there that’s going to be in deployment. We’re supplying Wal-Mart with Nikon. We’re a lab supplier for Wal-Mart out of our Mexican facility on a large scale. And then we have the EyeMed program. It will be a test this year because we want to make sure it works well. We want to get maximum input from ECPs to make sure it’s properly deployed. But hopefully by the third quarter of 2013 it will be properly deployed”. This is from a February 2013 interview with Vision Monday.
Now for the BIG dots of the puzzle, on to the optical retail, yes your competitors. In April 2010 Essilor purchased the majority stake of Frames Direct, the largest online retailer of premium prescription eyeglasses. Want to see more on this, visit framesdirect.com. What about the PD measurements everyone is asking about, well this is answered on their website with this statement: “Pupil distance measurements are taken at the time of an eye examination. Occasionally the PD information is omitted on an eyeglass prescription. Now, getting a PD measurement as accurate as the doctor's can be done from the convenience of your computer”. While Frames Direct offers almost all the popular brands of frames and lenses they seem to be fairly competitively priced. Oops scratch that, Essilor purchased Eyebuydirect in June of this year and they are one of the largest online retailers of very low cost prescription eyewear. The center of the first page you see on their sight offers a complete pair of prescription eyewear starting at $6.95, and you thought 2 pair for $78.95 was bad. For an example, I put in my prescription with a drill mount frame, with thin and light 1.57 freeform backside progressive lenses that are photochromic and include an anti reflective treatment for $93.90. Let me restate that incase you missed it, I could buy a 1.57 photochromic freeform backside progressive lens with AR in a drill mount frame for $93.90!!!! Can you match that for me? In March 2010 Essilor purchases FGX International. Who is that, you ask. FGX is the North American leader of Non-Prescription eyewear, like Foster Grant and Panama Jack sunglasses sold in most mass merchants and drug stores in America. The other side of FGX is Magnavision the number 1 seller of dollar store and drug store over the counter readers. FGX also has several lines of fashion readers and of course ophthalmic frames.
So what we have learned is that on the lab side Essilor owns the Lab Software, Surfacing equipment, Edging equipment, Coating equipment, consumable companies, and several lens companies. This is the entire gamete on the lab side, oh yea they also own nearly 170 labs in the USA (for now that is). We also found out that Essilor has a large lab in Mexico that produces a large percentage of the lab work for Wal-Mart. They supply progressive lenses for Costco and Wal-Mart and are arming Lenscrafters with equipment to take even more business away from independent practices and optical shops.
Now for the Retail wrap up. Frames Direct .com the largest online retailer of name brand frames and lenses direct to the consumer (your customers). These aren't discontinued old frames, these are the newest and most popular name brand high quality frames, the same ones you have on your shelf. Eye Buy Direct .com one of the largest retailer of low cost eyewear direct to the consumer. Complete pair of prescription eyewear for $6.95 (ouch). FGX International, the largest seller of OTC readers at drug stores, grocery stores, and dollar stores everywhere. You know the ones, where there is huge rack of different styles and add powers of readers where you always see someone doing their own refracting, “I can read with this pair of +2.00 but this +2.50 looks even better”. FGX, which sells the Foster Grants and Panama Jack sunglasses that you see racks and racks of in every mass merchant store out there. Try explaining to your patients why your premium polarized sunglasses are $200 and not $9.99 like their old pair was. Let’s not forget that FGX also supplies you with some popular ophthalmic frames, like: Gargoyles, Body Glove, Field & Stream, Jeff Banks, Disney, Barbie, Nine West, and Dockers to just name a few. And I guess this one affects you too: They supply progressive lenses for Costco and Wal-Mart and are arming Lenscrafters with equipment to take even more business away from independent practices and optical shops.
With all of this being pointed out Essilor has a piece of every single part of the entire optical industry, including a retail store and Insurance now with their partnership with EyeMed and Lenscrafters.
So, lets not ignore the 800 pound gorilla any longer. The next time you sit down and write a check to Essilor or one of their many companies just remember who they really are and where your money is going. Also remember the quote from the President and CEO of Essilor of America: “We are scoring points with large accounts, with contracts. We’re finding good ways to partner with other large accounts. With Costco we’ve been their provider of progressives. We have a unique product there that’s going to be in deployment. We’re supplying Wal-Mart with Nikon. We’re a lab supplier for Wal-Mart out of our Mexican facility on a large scale. And then we have the EyeMed program”.
What is your answer to the simple question “Essilor: Friend or Foe?
Written By:
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by JC1111
Bookmarks