Products & ideas for the laboratory professional.
Issue link: https://opticallabproducts.epubxp.com/i/92532
LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 Q&As; WITH THE COTRANS A Fast, Family-Run, Free-Form Lab US Optical is the second lab owned and run by the three Cotran brothers: Ralph, Ronald, and Robert. Since its founding four-and-a-half years ago, it has focused on high-end free-form products, speed, and quality. OLP's professional editor, Jim Grootegoed, spoke to the three brothers about their business model. JIM GROOTEGOED Please give us a quick summary of your backgrounds before starting in the lab business. RON COTRAN I'm an industrial engineer by training. I graduated from Syracuse University then worked for Carrier International. I had my own business exporting engineering equipment before we bought Onondaga Optical in 1986. It was near bankruptcy doing only about 80 jobs a day. All the equipment was broken. We bought it anyway because we didn't know any better. We knew nothing about the optical industry. We changed the name "The Cotran brothers have huge hearts and are generous with their expertise," —Jay Sagor, lab manager. to Optogenics and developed a high-value/low-cost uncut business and built it up to an average of 1,500 jobs a day. We sold it in 1999 to Essilor of America, Inc. but continued to work at the business until 2007. We left and in 2008 opened US Optical. Today we're back up to 1,500 jobs a day, except that this time we're doing it with really high- end products: free-form, anti-reflective (AR) coatings, and finished jobs. JG Ron, what is your present job? RON I run manufacturing and IT, but basically we're all kind of interchange- able. We can pretty much step into each other's jobs here. But we don't have to because we're always around here anyway! JG Robert, what's your back- ground? ROBERT COTRAN I'm a civil engineer and I have an MBA in marketing and finance. I graduated from Syracuse University and worked in international marketing for Caesar's World. Caesar's World is the corporate umbrella that owns Caesar's Palace and MGM Grand and all those other hotels. Our dad was looking for a business that was doing badly for all the wrong reasons. We heard about an optical company that was going to close. We saw Onondaga Optical on Tuesday and Ron and I bought it on a Thursday in 1986. We named it Optogenics after a racehorse! I'm responsible for finance and customer service and I can run the lab as well. A8 november 2012 JG What about you, Ralph? RALPH COTRAN I have an under- graduate degree in economics and an MBA in finance and marketing from Syracuse University. I was in the international insurance brokerage business until 1998. I ran the interna- tional division of some of the largest insurance brokers on the west coast. And, though not present, I always owned a third of Optogenics. In 1998, Ron and Robert convinced me to move back to East Syracuse and join the company. Once we sold it, I stayed on at Optogenics working for Essilor for eight additional years. JG I'm guessing that when you started US Optical you had pretty different business objectives? RON Well, Optogenics took 20 years to make it what it was. JG What did you do differently? ROBERT Well, for one thing, we now specialize in high-end products, high- index lenses, free-form, AR, finish work. The equipment was different four years ago, so today there are more automation possibilities. And we also know the business a lot better after 20 years. We get the jobs out. That's our business model and it's embedded in our employees. We have the technol- ogy and procedural systems in place to do it. It's not an argument anymore that we're the fastest lab in America. JG What you've done is taken the new technology and experi- ence and wrapped it around your new business plan. RALPH That is correct. And we've also changed the way we get new business. In the old lab, we really didn't have a sales force. We only had one salesperson in Florida. With US Optical, we hit the ground running. We said we're going to do what we do best. We did direct response marketing, along with having competent opticians and experienced salespeople in key states who fit well with what we produce. We offer high-end free-form with overnight service. RON Difficult-to-edge frames… RALPH Difficult jobs, wrap technol- ogy—so we try and match it up with large population areas where they have the same needs and where we can fulfill those needs. JG So does that mean you're going primarily urban? RALPH We're targeting states that have a large population where we believe we can grow our business. I'll give you an example. Arizona is not a strong state for us because it's primarily VSP Optics Group. Every time I open an account in Arizona, the first two questions are: "Do you have Varilux® and do you have VSP?" and I say, no and no, and that pretty much ends the conversation. Sometimes, however, they are open to our branded free-form products and 24 hour turnaround as an alternative if Varilux is the only totallyoptical.com