I am looking for semi-finished lens suppliers. I am looking for all material types, but at reasonable prices. I am thinking of leasing a wholesale lab with some accounts.
Thanks
Steve
I am looking for semi-finished lens suppliers. I am looking for all material types, but at reasonable prices. I am thinking of leasing a wholesale lab with some accounts.
Thanks
Steve
Go on optical website listing.....................
Go on optical website listing at http://optochemicals.com/web_ratings.htm therre are over 500 suppliers listed
Originally Posted by Rheaopt
I suggest doing something else. The whosale bus has gone to hell in a handbasket for most. I'm talking about a lot of smart folks too. Unless you are an Essilor owned lab. There are few exceptions to this. The bus is going mostly to Essilor,Walmart (we are giving it to them , I must add). and various insurance type plans. The "insurance or benefits" type plans. These plans tell you how much you can charge and take a cut for doing it. IF they allow a lab to do the work, there is not much money in it and it will probable be gone next year to some "new lab guy" that thinks he can make a living doing it cheaper. If you're an Optician get a job somewhere. You will make more money and it will be much easier. If you are an OD, stick to OD stuff. Invest in the best and newest marketing things.
Jim's posting is a sad commentary about the state of our field. Albeit true, we can only blame ourselves as professionals with how we let things get to this point. For the past couple of years there have been many threads on here about Lux taking over the retail business and how independents were supporting them by buying Lux product. From this posting by Jim, it seems the wholesale lens business is further along the road to demise.
Other Optiboarders have suggested to buy private label eyewear or branded product from overseas (as I had done when I was in the retail area). This is still a valid and lucrative way to adjust your business and fend off giving capital to the companies which will slowly squeeze the life out of your business.
As professionals you have extreme power to use your knowledge about product to guide your patients into lens choices that will best meet their needs. Certainly there cannot be only one (or a small few) lens manufacturers that can meet those needs. The obvious benefit with working with the big, branded lens companies are advertising benefits, financing and a vast array of lens choices. As practioners (this includes ophthalmologists, optometrists, opticians) you are forcing independent labs to work with companies' products that will one day eliminate them, much the same way some eyewear manufacturers will eliminate your mode of practice and/or erode your patient base.
There are a few overseas lens companies that pop up on this board from time to time offering their product(s). Typically this is for stock lenses but all these lens companies have a vast array of quality lens product. Perhaps if the independent practioners supported the independent labs and wholesalers who in turn supported the overseas lens manufacturers the economic scales will shift back again in favor of the independents.
Doc
Boss Optical Lens Company
China
Like Doc in China, I too must agree with Jim Stone. I own a small wholesale lab and see these things happening all the time. Find a real job instead.
I hope the people that have been beating us down on prices take note. Do you really want the cheapest made glasses. Do your customers. We've been held to prices of the 80's. Our workers, once treated very well, now entry level can't afford to maintain a car to drive to work. Bennefits are pretty much gone.
Well said Doc...
Yes, we have the power, but so many "O's" have been brainwashed into thinking they have to go through traditional channels. It's like the emperor's new clothes. They think that there's safety in numbers and they keep doing business as usual.
Look at all the OD's that are lock-step with VSP! Brain numbed droids that were too weak to say, "no, we'll stand on our own". They've handed the future of their practices over to someone else, and then go begging for the "privledge" of doing eye exams for $45! Why ? Because greed drove them to sign up when they thought they were going to miss out on a piece of that sweet pie. Well, the pie's not that sweet anymore, and there's sure not as many pieces to go around. Oh, and now YOU get audited by an insurance company that tells you what you can and can't do! OD's 35 years ago would never believe that it could come to that. New ODs are happy to feast on the crumbs that WalMart, VSP, Davis and anybody else is willing to toss them. It's pathetic, but not a surprise.
Surprised about Lux, Essilor and the other practice eating suppliers ? Why ?
Look at all the opticians that are lining up at VE to give orders to the "big 3"! What a love fest! Many opticians can forget who the enemy is when they get a free T-shirt and a handfull of M&Ms.
Say what you want about the Bill West and Framebenders, of the world, but it's the guys that are having the success are marching to the beat of a different drum - A Drum That They OWN.
What a love fest!....................
Perfect scenario.....................and it is a fact. When the visitor goe through the show they walk down the isles of the smaller booths not looking right nor left. You can see the independent wholesalers and manufacturers sitting there waiting for closing time............................while booth of the business eliminators are bustling making money to enlarge their imperiums.
The only reason I am considering this lab is because it has accounts with it that need to be serviced. It is the only wholesale lab in the area. The Doctors in the area want good service and reasonable turn around. I work for the lab now and have watched the owner let it go to nothing. When he bought it the lab was doing around a 100 jobs a day. Now around 25 to 30. It has the potential to do more.
SOME indepedent labs need to smarten up. I know a few of you are independent lab owners are doing very well and are running your business well. But I have had about four or five independent labs contact me in the past year.
All of these labs offered the exact same products, tried to sell me on junk AR, tried to convince me that they had the best price (when it was the same as everyone else), and offerd no differentiation point. It seems like they all try to compete on price, and I know they cannot.
With our retail store we do not compete on price, but we compete on everything else. It is impossible for me to match Wal-Mart with price, so I try to be different. But these guys seem to not understand that.
But these guys seem to not understand that.................
Independent lab owners do have to purchase their lenses from lens suppliers. These suppliers are geared to sell brand name lenses. Most of them have now been cut off by Essilor which sell only through their own distributor labs.
So they concentrate on the balance of brand names. To keep stock is a costly undertaking and they have to make some money on it.
Until a larger company gets into import and sales of non brand first class optical lenses that can be sold at much lower prices while still making a good profit, you are stuck with the present system.
I just would like to add that you can purchase top class quality lenses from at least 25 lens manufacturers that will make anything from progressives to all high index lenses, at a fraction of the price you are presently paying.
Interestingly Chris, I am contacted by many US companies and the bulk of those companies think that the A quality lenses from Asia (specifically China) should literally cost pennies. Additionally some of these companies want either credit terms or to pay COD. Other companies do not want to wire money to an overseas company or they hey want to pay with a credit card. All those demands these US companies have can be met by the big multinational companies. There are many reasons the big multinationals can offer eay payment terms. First their margins are much higher, and secondly they know if they offer easy payment terms they can easily attract business and further capiture market share.
By the time people realize it is too late there will be a few optical chains globally and a few multinational lens companies. As it has been said time and again...every dollar you spend with a competing company is another dollar that company has to erode your market share and control your cost of goods.
Doc
I couldn't agree more, For-Life. Price is the last place independents should be competing, even more so now with more of the industry being taken over by the big guys. Every time a small lab is bought by Essilor I smile inside, knowing there is one less competitor offering the level of service and quality that typically only an independent can offer.
-Keith
I am working on it to get good oversea blanks, it will save you at least 50%; if anyone is interested, please email me.
If you want good lenses, then you should go with Vision-Ease Lens. They primarily manufacture polycarbonate lenses, but they also have some plastic and glass. Their LifeRx photochromic lenses are crystal clear indoors and fade back a lot faster than Trans V. Their other brands include Continua, SunRx, Outlook, and Illumina.
Tymantis-
You wouldn't happen to work for, or profit from, the sale of Vision-Ease products would you???? :D
Maybe a bit of disclosure is in order?
Fezz
:cheers:
Sure am! Just want to get the word out so people keep us top of mind when they're looking for superior optics. Feel free to visit www.vision-ease.com for more info.
I was going to ask the same thing :)
What three things could your lab do to earn your business, other than price?
- Different products - When I deal with these labs they either carry Essilor or Sola lenses. Lets get into carrying Shamir, Vision Ease, Younger, ect. Also, offer unique products that get us to try you out.
- Service - A much forgotten thing. These labs that are trying to get me do not have the service. Many are arrogant and rude, and while they may be quick, they tend to not follow up with problems. This also includes education, if I phone with a tough question it needs to be answered.
- Innovation - Try to be different from the other labs, do different things. A lot of this is just the power of suggestion. Start coming up with sunwear packages with backside AR's, suggest what products should be tried out and so forth.
Another huge mistake is these labs and AR. I had one lab that is owned by a frame line come out with a rimless package, but the package had nothing for AR. The company said that it gets too many complaints about ease of clean and duriability. So finally the company adds AR, but instead of offering an easy to clean and durable product it gave a cheap, over the counter brand. I had another company offer its own AR services to us. The company said this AR is just as easy to clean as Alize. The problem is that I know this AR is horrible and does not last over time. Actually, I know my competitor deals with them and uses that AR and their patients are lucky if the AR lasts for a year.
One of the things we do, although we haven't promoted it in a while, is to field those tough questions from anyone. No need to have an account number or even give a name, just call us with your question, you'll get a real live person, and we'll do our best to give you an answer. Try that at a corporate lab. ;)
-Keith
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