Products & ideas for the laboratory professional.
Issue link: https://opticallabproducts.epubxp.com/i/472711
OPINIONS ONE-TO-ONE 6 march 2015 opticallabproducts.com Carol Gilhawley, editor-in-chief, OLP, talks to Mervyn McCrea, managing director, Crossbows Optical Ltd., a Signet Armorlite Group company lengths, different materials, and lifestyle designs. CAROL: ARE THEY CUSTOM- IZED DESIGNS? MERVYN: Well, they are designed really for the ECP to try and sell another pair of progressives to the patient. But, they're becoming more and more important to the industry. That's one of the beauties of free-form—you can create a new product and get it to market very quickly. CAROL: HOW MANY REPS DO YOU HAVE? MERVYN: Twenty—we're small but mighty! CAROL: WHAT CHANGES DO YOU SEE LABS MAKING IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS? MERVYN: I believe a lot of them will switch to private label. If you look at the way the market works in the U.S. at the moment, it's built by advertising and marketing and so on, which is done effectively by the lens suppliers. I think that is gradually going to change. The advent of free-form technology is causing this. Q. Why did you set up Crossbows Optical? MERVYN: Yes, we are, although we already do a lot of business in the U.S. CAROL: YOU AREN'T EXCLU- SIVE TO SIGNET EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE OWNED BY THEM? MERVYN: No, we're not. We can offer labs a non-branded option to carry as a value brand. We have an extensive range of about 100 designs with different corridor A. Crossbows Optical was formed in 1987 as a vehicle for a management buyout (MBO) from UK Optical, which had been operating in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, since 1946. Three other people and myself did the MBO. When UK Optical was running the factory, we manufac- tured a lot of different lenses in glass. We made spheres, torics, bifocals, solids, fat tops, curve tops, progressives—you name it, we made it. After we did the MBO, we created our own software to allow us to design and manufacture progressive lenses. We got involved with Signet Armorlite in 1993 and since then Crossbows has designed all of Signet's progressive lenses. CAROL: WHAT ABOUT BUSI- NESS OVERSEAS? MERVYN: From 2000 onwards, when Signet bought 100% of Crossbows, we started to sell into China, Korea, India—all parts of the world where progressive lenses are cast. In 2004, we created our own free-form software because we recognized that there was a change occurring within the industry that was a threat to our traditional business. We had progressive lens designs and we created the capabil- MERVYN McCREA began his career with GEC which manu- factured equipment for power stations. In 1984 he joined the optical industry as CFO of UK Optical, based in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. He and three colleagues organized a management buyout and started Crossbows Optical. In addition to handling the company's fnan- cials, McCrea also took over sales. Signet Armorlite bought 100% of Crossbows in 2000. Essilor Inter- national bought Signet in 2010. ity to marry that design to the individual's prescription and effectively enable optical laborato- ries to make a very complex surface using our designs and software to incorporate the pa- tient's prescription. CAROL: WHAT ROLE DOES CROSSBOWS PLAY? MERVYN: We create the software to all the free-form products that Signet sells into the marketplace, such as Kodak Unique, for exam- ple. We also license software to other companies around the world. Right now our customer list is 75 in about 30 different countries. We have a 69-year history with traditional progressive designs and more recently with digital progres- sive designs. Over 200 million progressive designs have been used based on Crossbows technology. CAROL: DO YOU WORK WITH LENS MANUFACTURERS OR LABS? MERVYN: Directly with laborato- ries. CAROL: ARE YOU MOVING MORE INTO THE U.S. MARKET?