Mujosh Launches Expansion at Silmo

Mujosh exhibited at Silmo Paris optical fair this year, presenting its usual distinguished green wood booth concept and showcasing its select boutique products and brand new 2015 designer series containing seven authentic conceptual glasses products. The company seeks franchise and distribution partners in the European market. After Silmo, Mujosh will attend the HK Optical fair this November. Earlier this year, the company opened its first overseas stores in Malaysia and Thailand in August, and will open in Australia this coming November. The company projects it will have at least 1000 stores and mature distribution channels within five years. Read more.

Optical Retailer Names 80 Stores “Helen Keller”

In an effort to sound chic and American, Chinese retailers have adopted odd names, according to a New York Times post:

Helen Keller, named for the deaf-blind American humanitarian, offers trendy sunglasses and classic spectacles at over 80 stores, with the motto “you see the world, the world sees you.” Read more.

Warby Parker’s Brick & Mortar Stores Seem a Success

“Warby Parker has made a name for itself by selling affordable, hipster-chic eyeglasses through a website, avoiding costly store expenses and licensing fees,” starts the Wall Street Journal post that appeared last week. “While that business has thrived, the startup’s promising next act is taking shape in a chain of storefronts dotting trendy retail neighborhoods from Boston’s Newbury Street to Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Los Angeles. Warby Parker is shaking up the glasses industry by offering home try-ons, online ordering and prescription frames for under $100. Co-founder and Co-CEO Neil Blumenthal discusses. Warby Parker’s eight brick-and-mortar stores are now collectively turning a profit, says Dave Gilboa, the company’s co-founder and co-chief executive. The stores sell an average of $3,000 a square foot annually, higher than most retailers not named Apple Inc.” Read more.

FFL Pumps Money into Eyemart Express

“San Francisco private equity firm FFL is investing in Eyemart Express,” reports Mergers & Acquisitions. “Eyemart, headquartered in Farmers Branch, Texas, is an optical retailer that has more than 150 stores in 30 states. The company sells private label and branded glasses, including Nike, Guess, Fendi, Calvin Klein and Armani.” Read more.

Database Server Goes Missing at Visionworks Store

More than five months ago, Visionworks, Inc., lost a database server from its Annapolis location on Jennifer Square. It went missing after it was replaced on June 2 during a scheduled upgrade. The company statement read: “The server potentially held partially unencrypted protected health information belonging to as many as 75,000 of the store’s customers. All credit card information housed on the server was encrypted, and therefore should not be at risk.” Thieves don’t make a habit of stealing encrypted servers. The company believes that the missing server accidentally was sent to one of the store’s local landfills, adding that there’s no reason to believe that any of the information residing has been accessed or used inappropriately. The retailer has notified the affected customers. It also is offering free credit monitoring for one year. Read more.

Same Day Eyewear Starts in Atlanta

Customers will receive finished eyewear same day with a new service launched recently by QSpex Technologies, according to a company press release on Yahoo! Finance. With this new program, customers order eyewear at a QSpex eye care provider, who then orders at a local QSpex Optical Service Center. The center produces and delivers the finished eyewear to wherever the customer chooses-same day. The first Optical Service Center was launched in the Atlanta metro area. The company plans additional locations. To date, scores of U.S. and international eye care providers reportedly have joined the QSpex network, and the Company will soon announce additional retail choices. Read more.

Luxottica Reportedly to Close 50 Sears Opticals

Two days after newspapers were reporting that Luxottica’s CEO Andrea Guerra was facing troubles, Vision Monday reports that Luxottica will close 50 Sears Optical locations.

Luxottica Retail’s Licensed Brands division will close 50 Sears Optical locations in the U.S., VMail has learned. The news was shared internally with associates. In response to a query from VMail, the company did not provide which specific locations would close, but a Luxottica spokesperson said, “Today, we are sharing the difficult, but necessary decision to close 50 Sears Optical locations across the U.S. The impacted stores have served their customers and communities well, but have struggled with results over time. The Sears Optical team is incredibly committed to the long-term, sustainable growth of the brand….”Read more.

AOA Issues Consumers Warning about Online Purchases

The consequences of making an incorrect or uninformed online purchases could cost patients more time and money in the long run, according to a new warning from the American Optometric Association (AOA).  An AOA study published in 2011 with the Optical Laboratories Association and The Vision Council reinforces the drawbacks of online orders. The study concluded:

• Of 200 glasses ordered online, only 154 pairs were received;
• 44.8 percent had incorrect prescriptions or safety issues;
• 29 percent had at least one lens fail to meet required prescription;
• 19 percent of adult lenses failed impact resistance testing; and,
• 25 percent of children's lenses failed impact resistance testing.

Read more.

Jobson Releases 2014 Optical Retailer Report

“Jobson Optical Research has released the 2014 U.S. Optical Retailer Report & Directory, which lists the top optical retailers in the U.S., including their company headquarters contact information, key executives, buyer names for all product categories, and trade names/DBAs,” reports Vision Monday. “The report/directory also includes Vision Monday’s most recent annual ranking and analysis of the “Top 50 U.S. Optical Retailers” based on their 2013 estimated sales and business unit counts.” Read more

Day in the Life of an Optician

We received the following email from the Opticians Association of America. We thought we would share.

Vision Monday is seeing how vast and manifold the optical industry is every single day. For their Sept. 1st issue, they would like to show their readers just how diverse and vibrant this industry is by asking different segments to document different parts of their day.

What does your company do each day that is interesting or particularly representative of your field? They are asking you to photograph and log at least 4-6 moments over the course of the next two weeks that you feel best represent or characterize what some of the various departments of your company do.

From the mundane to the outrageous they want to see it all. They've asked folks from all over the industry to do the same and they will plot them all out in the September issue in order to share with you all just how great and multifaceted the optical industry in the United States is.

They are offering the option of providing you with a disposable camera and printed worksheets to record the moments (as well as a self-addressed and stamped return envelope). You are of course also welcome to use your own digital camera and email them the images, as well as the completed worksheet, if that makes you more comfortable.

They are expecting a lot of amazing pictures, so they ask that you please email your worksheet and images back to John Sailer (Senior Editor, Vision Monday) at jsailer@jobson.com (or return your worksheet and camera that will be included in the envelope) by July 25th.

Please let them know which you would prefer (and provide a mailing address if you'd like the camera) so they can get you everything you need ASAP!

Click Here for the "A Day in the Life" Worksheet.  Have Fun!!!

The Making of Norman Childs--An Optician

"So, in 1979, after being turned down for a bank loan, but armed with seven credit cards, Childs opened up his own shop on lower Murray Avenue, dubbing the store 'Eyetique,' a named coined by his grandmother." This is part of the story about Norman Childs, an opitician, which recently appeared in The Jewish Chronicle. "The business took off in 1986, he said, when, after sheer persistence, he was able to convince Oliver Peoples...to allow him to be its first and exclusive distributor....Now 35 years later, Childs has 16 stores — including three under the name 3 Guys Optical, which features overruns sold at deep discounts — and his own line of 'Norman Childs' eyewear." Read more.

The CNBC Disruptors List for 2014: Warby Parker

"Warby Parker was created to be an alternative to the overpriced and bland eyewear that's been a staple of the industry for decades," starts the CNBC story. "The four founders all met as students at The Wharton School in Philadelphia, where in between classes they traveled the globe and tried to figure out ways to do business differently while making a positive impact on the world. Eyewear fit the bill." Read more.

Adweek Praises Optician's Ad Campaign

"Tell the art history majors to leave the room, because here's a campaign that will make creative types jealous and will make purists' eyes bleed," says Adweek. "In a campaign that's new to us but appears to have been running for a while now, Y&R Paris has created a series of ads for eyewear retailer KelOptic showing impressionist paintings brought into focus. The tagline is 'Turning impressionism into hyperrealism.' Another case of advertising sullying some of mankind's greatest artistry? Sure. But also pretty awesome." Read more.

U.S. Vision Now Runs Meijer Optical Centers

Meijer has selected U.S. Vision, Inc., as its exclusive vision center in Meijer stores across the Midwest. U.S. Vision, based in Glendora, N.J., is currently a tenant in 50 Meijer stores in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, and has plans to open 19 more vision centers in Meijer stores this year. All of its vision centers will be renamed "Meijer Optical" by the end of the month. Read more.

International Optical Retail News

In Sweden: Reuters reports that “private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has bought eyewear chain Synsam Nordic from Alipes, the investment firm controlled by Sweden's Kamprad family which also controls the world's largest furniture retailer IKEA, CVC said on Tuesday. CVC did not say how much it paid for Synsam, which had sales of around 3 billion Swedish crowns ($467 million) in 2013 and employs some 2,600.” Read more.

In India: “Retail eyewear chain Titan Eye Plus has sewn up plans for major expansion of its retail network of stores, adding 50-60 stores across the country in 2014-15 as its strengthens its presence with more brands, including Fastrack, Hipster and Glares,” according to Hindu Businessline. “Part of Titan Company Ltd of the Tata Group, the company opened its 96th store in South India and expects to hit the 100 stores mark shortly. It has a pan-India network of 278 stores operating across 106 cities.” Read more.

Eyewear Marketplace to Grow Globally at an Annual Rate of 3.2%

The global eyewear market should  reach $142.18 billion by 2020, according to a study by Grand View Research, Inc. Expanding wearer base coupled with increasing penetration of eyewear for vision correction will fuel the growth, according to Eyewear Market Analysis And Segment Forecasts To 2020.  Here are some of the key findings:

• Demand will increased with the early entry of children into the corrective eyewear as well as aging population. 
• Growing urbanization and disposable income, along with awareness regarding the need for protecting the eyes against UV rays has led to high demand for plano sunglasses. 
• Acceptance of alternative methods of vision correction including refractive surgeries may restrain growth. 
• Worldwide, the industry sold 2,750.3 million units in 2012. It will rise to 3,507.7 million units by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 3.2% from 2014 to 2020. 
• Spectacle frames and lenses accounted for over 50% of the total eyewear shipments in 2012, primarily resulting from perscription changes. Demand for high-index lenses should increase. 
• Plano sunglasses could grow at 8.1% CAGR, driven primarily by a high demand for premium-priced units. Polarized sunglasses contributed over 20% of overall shipments in 2012, with CR-39 expected to remain the largest lens material segment. 
• North America dominated global demand in 2012; while Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing regional market, at an estimated CAGR of 3.7% from 2014 to 2020. In terms of revenue, Europe accounted for over 40% of the total market in 2012, because of significantly high selling prices. 

The report is available at http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/eyewear-industry. Inquiry Before Buying at http://www.grandviewresearch.com/inquiry/32. 

Pearle Converts 27 Stores from Company-Owned to Licensee-Owned

Pearle Vision has converted 27 stores from company-owned to licensee-owned last year. The will continue what it calls re-licensing in 2014. Of the 27 licensing agreements, Pearle Vision announced 10 new licensees in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Tennessee, Illinois and Iowa. In addition, 17 existing Pearle Vision licensees chose to expand by licensing additional centers in Texas, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, New York, Wisconsin, Nevada, Illinois and Puerto Rico. Read more.

New Look Posts $25.6 Million in Fourth Quarter

Fourth quarter revenue for 140-store Canadian retailer New Look Eyewear Inc. reached $25.6 million, a 22.5% increase over the same quarter in 2013. The increase comes with the opening of six new stores over the past two years and the acquisition of Vogue Optical Inc. Read more.

Eye Store Thief Calls 911 on Himself

"No one’s really sure what was going through Michael Garvin’s mind when he broke into an Ada, Okla. eye care store," according to an SFGate post. "All police and store employees have is the aftermath of one very bizarre night. Ada police released surveillance video of the Jan. 4 break-in at Ada Family Eye Care. Something bad must have happened because police say Garvin, 22, called 911 from the business’ phone, Oklahoma City’s News 9 reports." Read more.

FL LensCrafters Loses $580,000 in Sunglasses to Thieves

“A shady theft ring that targeted eyeglass retailer giant LensCrafters made at least $580,000 from illegal sunglass sales on eBay within 13 months, authorities said,” says the Sun-Sentinel. “Officials said the group of thieves — most of them from South Florida — hit LensCrafters across the state with distraction thefts, pocketing pricey sunglasses valued as high as $1,000 each. They have conducted at least eight heists in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties and in Central Florida. The first store to be hit was in Boynton Beach on Nov. 18, 2012.” Read more.