Thank you!
The bed has been made. Sleep well.
Keep up the good work Mr. Rips!
Clinton Tower
The intellect to live free is in short supply
ALT248=°
Hoya is not truly independant. They have to license Free-form tech from Zeiss and Seiko. They buy their Poly and 1.67 from Seiko. They get their hardcoats from Matsui Resin. The license Phoenix from PPG. They are more dependant than any other optical company really.
They started as the Essilor distributor in Japan, and only recently (relatively) began manufacturing. They have outsourced much more of their production than most major suppliers, and are just now filling holes in their production chain. Not a bad business strategy, per se, its good for ROI. But you can easily see their interest in purchasing Seiko, they are possibly the least independant of all the major players.
Last edited by sharpstick777; 01-08-2013 at 02:38 PM.
It doesn't have to. There are alternative products and labs. I suppose it boils down to the strength of one's addiction.
When Mr Rips grows weary, as the wholesalers did, trying to compete with big E, you go ahead and make your best offer. See whom he makes his deal with. All those labs were like, well heck, if they like big Es policies so much, they can have it. It's already pretty much a done deal is wholesale labs. The indy labs that still survive, do so at big Es wishes. It's done. Same with equipments. These retailer that were in denial a couple years ago are starting to see, now. Too late.
I'm listening to 'Fat Bottomed Girls' right now on Pandora...and all I can see in my mind is Fezz jumping around with a microphone in one hand, a frosty pint in the other, and a polyester jumpsuit...with buckskin fringe on the sleeves! His mustache also seems a little bigger...
Ala Elvis 74?
Hoya may not be completely independent (but neither are we or indeed any normal company), but as far as I can tell they aren't trying to monopolise the market either.
No, not the extent Essilor has, but they would if they could. They tried to monopolize the Trivex corner of it a few years ago. They won't license their lens tech out like Seiko and Zeiss do. They allow very very few non-Hoya labs to process their progressives. They don't license their coatings or process out to anyone. They are not very forthcoming on their technology specs like Zeiss, Shamir and Seiko are. They have never given me (willingly) Colts RLS data on their coatings. When I tried to get solid info on their 1.70 2 years ago, I couldn't get it (the posted 6 different spec. gravities around the world). They don't hire reps with Optical backgrounds very often, They are the most difficult company to get real technical information from, they have never willingly given me access to their engineering team (every other optical company has).
They are no better than Essilor IMHO, just smaller.
I had an independent rep stop by one of my offices last month. She was complaining about E and how they are taking over the world. She then went out to her car, and came back with a new calendar, and a Crizal display.
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
The first rock concert I ever attended (Nov. 25th, 1979) was Queen. Fat Bottomed Girls was in the middle of the set. The drum set was made to look like a bicycle, and it floated down from the ceiling on a platform with Roger Taylor behind it. As soon as they started playing it, a majority of the girls in the crowd dropped trou and mooned the band. I have to laugh everytime I hear that song!
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
Why are you all so pi$ed at Essilor?! You can't buy something that's not on the market "for sale".
X-Cell sold out, as did a lot of other labs. Why didn't Essilor buy Zeiss when Zeiss were in financial trouble? Because Zeiss was not "for sale".
Why didn't Essilor buy Hoya? Because Hoya was not "for sale".
Why didn't Essilor buy Tokai? Because Tokai was not "for sale".
Do you get the pattern here?
The fact is that a lot of lens companies were for sale… and Essilor had the spare change.
So before blaming the big bad Essilor, you might want to look at the independents who sold out first.
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