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FEATURE CHERRY OPTICAL 8 january 2015 opticallabproducts.com Growing Free-Form with a Cherry on Top BY CAROL GILHAWLEY Adam Cherry discusses the investments in free-form surfacing Cherry Optical has made and the monetary rewards it has received. ADAM CHERRY, president of Cherry Optical, Inc., is glad his lab invested in digital surfacing when it did seven years ago. It has allowed his lab to grow substan- tially and now they're ahead of the posse and improving their turn- around time, product quality, and number of daily orders. In February, Cherry Optical is increasing the size of its existing facility in Green Bay, WI, and adding an extra free-form line. All these investments are "not scary because they make good fnancial sense," Cherry says. In fact, before the introduction of digital surfac- ing, the lab was doing 70 jobs a day. Now its output is about 400 jobs a day. About 99% of the progressives Cherry Optical sells are free-form. Cherry's parents, Joe and Lynn, started the lab 15 years ago. For the frst eight years the lab didn't do any surfacing at all but just cut and edge. "We were slowly growing and fnding opportunities," Cherry explains. In addition to his parents and himself, his sister, Kim Lockett, works at the 6,000-sq.-ft. lab. The company started with two employees and two edgers and now has 38 staff members. FREE-FORM WAS THE FUTURE In 2007, digital surfacing and the free-form brand were new concepts in the U.S. even though Carl Zeiss Vision, Inc. and Rodenstock had been actively manufacturing free-form lenses in Europe for years. In those days Cherry Optical was getting free-form lenses from Japan and Germany with a turn- around time of 10-14 days. Cherry knew it was only a matter of time before free-form came to the U.S. and he decided to make a fnancial investment in it. He checked out all the main free-form equipment manufacturers: Schnei- der Optical Machines, Inc.; Satisloh North America, Inc.; Coburn Technologies, Inc.; and DAC International. They even toured the big labs in the U.S. that were doing free-form designs such as HOYA Vision Care, North America; Signet Armorlite, Inc.; and Essilor of America, Inc. "They were all running Schneider equipment," Cherry notes. "We said if that's what the big labs are doing then we want to go with them too." SCHNEIDER EQUIPMENT Cherry Optical's frst purchases were Schneider's HSC Smart A generator which it still uses, though with upgraded components. In Cherry Optical made a fnancial commit- ment to free-form in 2007. Lynn and Joe Cherry started Cherry Optical 15 years ago. Next month, Cherry Optical will complete a building extension to house its new free-form line.