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LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 HISTORY A Brotherly Bond The three Cotran brothers have been in business together for the past 26 years. US Optical is their second lab and demand for free-form is so high that they're extending their premises in upstate New York. BY CAROL GILHAWLEY THE COTRAN brothers have had interesting careers. Born to a United Nations diplomat father and an Italian mother, they spent their childhood overseas in countries like Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Somalia, Laos, Japan, and the Middle East. As a result, they are multilingual. Ralph is the oldest, Ronald is two years younger, and Robert is three years younger than Ron. Two of the brothers, Ron, an industrial engineer and vice president, and Robert, president, who has a civil engineering degree with an MBA, began in the laboratory business in 1986. Prior to buying a lab, Robert had been working for Caesar's World in interna- tional marketing and Ron had been with Carrier Air Conditioning internationally. They bought a nearly bankrupt lab, Onondaga Optical, in 1986. They saw the lab on Tuesday and bought it on Thursday. "Our dad wanted us to have our own family business," Ron said. "Unfortunately he died of lung cancer six months after we bought it." CHANGED THE NAME Onondaga was doing about 80 prescriptions a day. "All their equipment was broken and we bought it knowing nothing of the optical industry," Ron said. They changed the name to Optogenics, after a racehorse. Robert enjoys horse racing and over the years has owned several horses. In 1999, when Optogenics was doing about 1,500 jobs a day, they sold the lab to Essilor of America, A4 november 2012 Inc. "They offered us a good opportunity and I would say that the timing was right," said Ralph. "We saw Essilor as the best partner because we didn't have the Varilux® brand. And Varilux was king. So, it got us into Varilux and into some new technologies they were developing." Even though Essilor bought Optogenics, the Cotrans still ran the lab. They were totally autonomous for eight years and reported directly to Essilor's CEO. "We were the only lab that reported to the CEO. They kept us separate because of the way we were doing things and our own unique business model. They were testing some special projects at our lab, so they wanted us to be separate," Ralph explained. US OPTICAL WAS BORN Ralph always owned a piece of Clockwise from top: Ralph Cotran with their mother Lola Cotran before the lab opened. Robert Cotran oversees construction of US Optical before its launch in March 2008. Ron Cotran stands in front of their first free-form line. The lab is now adding its fourth free-form line. Robert, Ron, and Ralph Cotran after the floor had been put in US Optical, their new lab, in 2008. totallyoptical.com