Sung while doing my best flamboyant Freddie Mercury impression:
And another one gone
And another one gone
And another one bites the dust!
Hey....I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust!
This is an outrage !!!!!!!!!
I hate Essilor so so so much.
Maybe you all hate them, but you keep buying their products.
Private label FF lenses, you still need blanks. Need those specialty blanks, they've been assimilated.
Do Zeiss or Hoya lenses indirectly fund Essilor in any way (unless they have transitions)?
Some (mumble mumble) of years ago, X-Cel had an advertising campaign entitled "All the Odd Ducks", and it played to their strengths: making the one-off or short production runs of lenses that were not possible to get anywhere else.
You know I work in glass, so here's just an example: where else can you get a plano base D35 in a 2.50 add? (Diving mask lenses)
In CR-39 casting, they make not only extra thick lens blanks, but extra thick lens blanks with plano backs. I'm pretty sure if you wanted them, they could make some with a plus power back.
They have ALWAYS been the go-to place to get the off-the beaten track, odd-ball lenses (within the realm of reality and availability of raw materials). X-Cel is the last large-scale fuser left in the US. Look what happened when VE moved to Indonesia. First their quality dropped in the bucket, then they had a fire that destroyed the facility and they were off-line for 2-3 years.
Why is fusing so important? If you want made-in-the-USA CR-39 bifocals, X-Cel is about the only place left that makes them that way, using fused glass molds.
As we know, when "E" comes in, they clean house and drop all the "insignificant" and "unprofitable" product lines and turn the facility into a clone-mill. Will this happen at X-Cel? I don't know, but if past history is any clue, the answer is most probably yes. I hope I'm wrong. I pray I'm wrong. But if I'm right, my life has just gotten a lot more complicated.
Joe and Wayne are holding only 20% "control" of the company now. What's going to happen to prices? "E" now controls the prices of a major lens manufacturer in the US. I suspect we will see prices go up across the board and availability of product ranges shrink significantly.
That's my two cents, but I've based it on being a customer of X-Cel since 1975 and watching "E" take over the industry since the 1990's.
What happens if "E" decides that free-forms need to be processed only at its facilities and starts tightening up on the supply of single vision lenses?
Is Younger optical still independent?
At least I'm still safe selling drivewear!
Is there ANY product that is better and can't be found in Essilor, Zeiss or Hoya owned lab?
Drivewear comes to my mind, but is it really much better than polarized transitions and/or polarized suns...
I wonder how long it will be before they run out of labs and lens companies to buy and turn their attention to the frame makers? Essilor, we spell it B O R G....
Lenny, you could use an independent lab. We usually have access to products other than Essilor, Zeiss or Hoya, Seiko for instance, or Younger or Vision-Ease or Polycore.
Judy, that was not my question!
I am sure your lab also uses Essilor products.
I really wanted to know what are the pure people that are using Essilor or Zeiss or Hoya labs missing out on???
What product you can offer that is not available from them and better than what the offer?
By your standards, Drivewear will not make the cut. I suppose that between the three of them, you can get what ever you want, until they decide you can't and you have nowhere else to turn.
I think the only way Younger gets sold is if there is someone NOT by the last name of Rips at the top.
Clinton Tower
The intellect to live free is in short supply
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