Breaking Into Safety
What every independent ECP
should know about setting up an SRx business
RETAIL DISPENSARY--SAFETY
EYEWEAR
Breaking Into Safety
What every independent ECP should know about setting up an SRx business
By Seth Bookey
Contributing Editor
NEW YORK --Starting up a safety prescription eyewear segment in your dispensary might sound like a daunting task, but a variety of current conditions have made this niche business a growth opportunity for any optometrist or ECP who is thinking of how to increase value-added services to potential new clients.
Currently, manufacturers of safety eyewear have broken the mold and are providing frame styles that mesh with everyday dress eyewear, and more fashionable frames can bring in higher margins. Fashionability helps maintain compliance. Emphasizing style, service, and price, rather than price, helps when it comes to selling safety Rx eyewear.. The advent of detachable sideshields has been a benefit in this regard, market observers tell VM.
Stronger and lighter lens materials are also making safety prescription eyewear (SRx) more fashionable, and increase government regulations, via OSHA, have brought increased pressure on companies to protect their employees’ vision.
A local ECP is just as capable of covering their needs as a large, national conglomerate. Gary Keen, district sales manager for Essilor Industrial Sales/East, notes that “any ECP, new or established, can look to safety Rx as a growth opportunity. The goal of all programs or promotions at the ECP level is to increase foot traffic.”
Mark Platter, president of Safety Rx Services in Crete, Ill., notes that for many dispensaries, the industrial worker coming in for mandatory safety eyewear is often someone who has never sought out visioncare whatsoever.
Charles Arensberg, of Dispensers Optical Services, notes that ECPs are often reluctant about getting into safety, “until we can prove we are generating traffic through the store,” he said. “When they say, ‘this isn’t bad, how can I do more?’ and they are in an area where we don’t have coverage, we give them a booklet. Until they start seeing referrals from labs, it can be daunting.” Dispensing Optical Services works with about 4000 ECPs nationwide in providing SRx.
Local eyecare providers are also in a position to counter the problems safety managers encounter with large, price-oriented programs by guaranteeing more personalized service and faster turnaround
Here’s a look at several ECPs who have successfully pursued building an SRx niche business, and some tips from experts in safety eyewear outlining what you need to know about adding this service to your product mix.
Safety from Scratch
For Frank Salazar, general manager of Price-Mart Optical, with two locations in Albuquerque and Farmington, N.M., got into SRx “wholesale.” Safety prescription eyewear represents about 20-30 percent of his business, he told VM.
“I went out and did it all from scratch. I went to the oil companies here and put packages together. Instead of them coming in with retail prices, they get wholesale prices from us.”
Salazar provides SRx for companies with anywhere from 20 to 200 employees.
Salazar has been in the optical business for 12 years, and got into SRx about three years ago. “I got most major companies in the area to do safety eyewear with me. I have my own lab and can provide fast turnaround--about a day or two from when they come in.”
Ray Guy (l) and Frank Salazar of Price-MartOptical pose in front of one of the dispensaries’ safety eyewear displays.
Salazar used to work for another optical retailer in Albequerque, and while there, noted that there was a lot of business “after spending years of being the middleman.” The ECP he worked for would get a $20 dispensing fee, and he thought, “Why not make that all our profit myself?”
Staring up his SRx business was quicker than he had anticipated. “With OSHA coming down hard lately, once companies get my flyer, they really go about implementing a safety eyewear program. A lot of companies were giving universal side shields rather than providing true safety eyewear.”
Price-Mart has its safety frames in a separate area of the dispensary, clearly marked for those clients to find. The SRx part of the practice is fulfilled in two ways. Either clients come in with their company’s authorization form, or Salazar also goes to companies to perform onsite dispensing.
When it comes to lens materials, Salazar is pushing polycarbonate “because of the safety factors.” About 90 percent of his SRx jobs are in polycarbonate. New options have made dispensing SRx in polycarbonate as well. “VisionEase came out with a new polycarbonate FT 28 in Transitions. In the past, no one had made that.” The rest is CR-39 or glass “for old timers who like the scratch resistance. To get them out of glass lenses, I will give a one-time, one-year scratch warrantee for polycarbonate. That works pretty well, but there are still some stubborn customers who want glass lenses."
Salazar also builds business off of SRx by extending savings to the customer’s family. “We give immediately family 10-percent off for their other eyewear needs. We increased sales big time. A lot of employees also come in for their regular eyewear at 10-percent off.” Authorization forms are kept on file so “we know they and their families are entitled.”
Salazar also makes pricing affordable by packaging it. “We have 150 frames to choose from. People off the street cannot get it wholesale. Lenses for safety run $99 versus $169. If they want to upgrade, it’s more. A lot of companies pay for Transitions.” He noted that about 60 to 70 pecent of SRx jobs he does are in Transitions lenses. While most employers have a total limit of anywhere from $150 to $250 for eyewear, customers tend to be willing to pay out of pocket for photochromic lenses. Salazar also offers a polarized Fantom clip as an add-on sale, and throws in a clip-on case for their car visor so they have the clip ready when they get behind the wheel.
Price-Mart Optical also offers LifeStyle Choices card for purchases. “Only 10 percent get approved, but those who do like using it for additional pairs. They tend to max out their card. I’ve seen approvals from $200 to $3000.”
Salazar notes that customers try to match their safety eyewear to their current dress eyewear, so 80 percent of his presbyopic SRx patients will go with a progressive lens in SRx as well.
Understanding the Niche
In Ohio, where there is less manufacturing than in other parts of the country, there is not a lot of competition for safety eyewear business. For Mike Galliland, who owns Northstar Vision Center with four locations in the Columbus area, safety represents 10 percent of his business, but sees it as an important springboard to other business, and has for the past 25 years. This is why he is willing to do 70 percent of his SRx business by dispensing onsite. The companies with whom he works have anywhere from 100 to 2000 employees. “We will go as far as 45 miles to dispense to them.”
“You have to make sure to get a dispensing fee for your time when they come into your office. The point is to generate new business. Make sure to have a brochure to hand off to them, and encourage families,” he advised. “At the plants, get an hourly rate, and have an optician on site.”
“We go to the plants anywhere from once a week to three times a week,” he told VM. “We try to encourage them to bring the family in to the office, to build trust. A lot of them have insurance that help pay for street glasses. If not, we offer a savings of 10 to20 percent.”
“We are the middle man, filling out the forms, verifying the glasses, and dispensing them to the employees. We charge a $15 fee typically. It’s a small fee, but many get second pairs or family prescription eyewear business,” he said. “You have to be willing to understand the safety frames and how the companies work. Most people don’t understand the concept of providing a service with a limited fee that leads to other, more lucrative, business.”
Providing Southern Comfort
For Jack Holbert, owner of Decatur Optical in Decatur, Ala., the biggest impact on his general practice has been referrals gained through the SRx patient base he has pursued for the past 12 years. He also noted that the biggest change to SRx in he’s noticed in the past three decades is “the styling and the lens materials. Overall, a much more comfortable pair and better looking pair.”
For Holbert, SRx accounts for about 20 percent of his business. “We really pursue it for the peripheral spin-off business. We hope to expose them to our services and have them come back for other business,” he said. Typically, these are second-pair sales, or contact lenses.
But safety eyewear continues to be a steady business, with most companies he services replacing SRx eyewear annually. “There’s a lot of corrosive and scratching problems. We have a broad base of industries we deal with. Some high-tech, some chemical industries. We have a wide base of manufacturing in the area,” he said.
Word of mouth is also a helpful when service is good. “If you get into one company and do a good job, the safety directors talk. There’s a lot of competition here [in Alabama] and we’re all in the same mindset.”
Holbert simplifies SRx for the companies he services by putting together package pricing. “We go in with wholesale pricing on the safety account and put together a packing price for the customers. We reach an agreement with the companies,” Holbert said. “For personal glasses we will do a package discount for second pairs. We get flyers out to all employees so they know the discount.” Decatur Optical also has package pricing for professional fees, sunwear, and contact lenses. “We try to lock a company in so that they cannot afford to go anywhere else.”
Companies differ in terms of what is included in safety glasses. Some allow photochromic lenses and AR, and some are very exclusive on what they want the employee to have. “For presbyopes, customers seem willing to pay for premium progressives.” Holbert uses Varilux as a premium PAL but also offers the Natural as a standard PAL for someone who wants to economize. “We try to maintain the PAL they are working with in street eyewear,” he added.
Holbert, who has owned the 37-year-old business for the past 17 years, told VM that the 2003 ANSI standard for SRx “minimalized the situation for us. We just moved over to the high-impact status, mostly working with polycarbonate. We have some manufacturers whose environments scratch polycarbonate, so we use CR-39. We see very little glass safety eyewear. Some people also prefer glass and like that they can clean them with a shirt tail.”
Quadrupling an Opportunity
While SRx only accounts for five percent of his business, Phil Gillette, owner of Eyeworld in Saraland, Ala., feels that his safety work is significant, since that five percent “might spin off into 20 percent by the time referrals and such happen,” he said. “We’re very, very busy.”
“We’ve been in practice 21 years this and we’ve been doing safety from the beginning,” Gillette said. “We have our own lab on the premises. We do our own grinding. We made our first safety contact during our first three months in business. I would hate to lose any safety business, and over the years we have lost business--due to plant closings.We have 25 safety accounts --15 are active, and out of those 15, three are very active,” he told VM.
At Eye World in Saraland, Ala. a prominent statement for safety eyewear keeps awareness high.
Eyeworld is located right outside Mobile Ala., along a river where quite a few chemical companies are located. “We do a lot of work for them. There are also paper mills and local utility companies that we work with,” he said.
Most of the employees for the companies Eyeworld serves also get a pair of dress glasses. “We also market to their family members with a discount program,” he said. SRx glasses tend to get replaced annually, although some companies also have an additional lens allowance. “The majority of employees also get their eye exams here, too.”
Gillette also only dispenses in polycarbonate or CR-39. “We are not doing any glass safety eyewear. I refuse to. For all practical purposes, when ANSI 2003 went into effect, we stopped. We were the only folks in South Alabama still working with glass. I made a decision that we just weren’t going to do glass anymore,” he noted. Eliminating glass lenses also free up a lot of room for inventory.
Phil Gillette
“It used to be that companies would only pay for the very basic safety frames, but in the last five years, the companies are coming around to paying for something that looks a little better and are more serviceable in the long run,” he said. This acceptance of fashion-forward styling helps Eyeworld to price the frame to them with a price that will be comfortable to the companies.
Along with the trend of more fashion-friendly frame styles for SRx, Gillette also sees an an upswing in progressive lenses. “Several of the companies cover them, but employees are not hesitating to pay the difference. With out pricing structure, it would be about $85 for a premium progressive.”
Volume Number: 20:05 Issue: 4/24/2006
© 2006 VisionMonday. All Rights Reserved
Breaking Into Safety
What every independent ECP should know about setting up an SRx business
By Seth Bookey
Contributing Editor
NEW YORK --Starting up a safety prescription eyewear segment in your dispensary might sound like a daunting task, but a variety of current conditions have made this niche business a growth opportunity for any optometrist or ECP who is thinking of how to increase value-added services to potential new clients.
Currently, manufacturers of safety eyewear have broken the mold and are providing frame styles that mesh with everyday dress eyewear, and more fashionable frames can bring in higher margins. Fashionability helps maintain compliance. Emphasizing style, service, and price, rather than price, helps when it comes to selling safety Rx eyewear.. The advent of detachable sideshields has been a benefit in this regard, market observers tell VM.
Stronger and lighter lens materials are also making safety prescription eyewear (SRx) more fashionable, and increase government regulations, via OSHA, have brought increased pressure on companies to protect their employees’ vision.
A local ECP is just as capable of covering their needs as a large, national conglomerate. Gary Keen, district sales manager for Essilor Industrial Sales/East, notes that “any ECP, new or established, can look to safety Rx as a growth opportunity. The goal of all programs or promotions at the ECP level is to increase foot traffic.”
Mark Platter, president of Safety Rx Services in Crete, Ill., notes that for many dispensaries, the industrial worker coming in for mandatory safety eyewear is often someone who has never sought out visioncare whatsoever.
Charles Arensberg, of Dispensers Optical Services, notes that ECPs are often reluctant about getting into safety, “until we can prove we are generating traffic through the store,” he said. “When they say, ‘this isn’t bad, how can I do more?’ and they are in an area where we don’t have coverage, we give them a booklet. Until they start seeing referrals from labs, it can be daunting.” Dispensing Optical Services works with about 4000 ECPs nationwide in providing SRx.
Local eyecare providers are also in a position to counter the problems safety managers encounter with large, price-oriented programs by guaranteeing more personalized service and faster turnaround
Here’s a look at several ECPs who have successfully pursued building an SRx niche business, and some tips from experts in safety eyewear outlining what you need to know about adding this service to your product mix.
Safety from Scratch
For Frank Salazar, general manager of Price-Mart Optical, with two locations in Albuquerque and Farmington, N.M., got into SRx “wholesale.” Safety prescription eyewear represents about 20-30 percent of his business, he told VM.
“I went out and did it all from scratch. I went to the oil companies here and put packages together. Instead of them coming in with retail prices, they get wholesale prices from us.”
Salazar provides SRx for companies with anywhere from 20 to 200 employees.
Salazar has been in the optical business for 12 years, and got into SRx about three years ago. “I got most major companies in the area to do safety eyewear with me. I have my own lab and can provide fast turnaround--about a day or two from when they come in.”
Ray Guy (l) and Frank Salazar of Price-MartOptical pose in front of one of the dispensaries’ safety eyewear displays.
Salazar used to work for another optical retailer in Albequerque, and while there, noted that there was a lot of business “after spending years of being the middleman.” The ECP he worked for would get a $20 dispensing fee, and he thought, “Why not make that all our profit myself?”
Staring up his SRx business was quicker than he had anticipated. “With OSHA coming down hard lately, once companies get my flyer, they really go about implementing a safety eyewear program. A lot of companies were giving universal side shields rather than providing true safety eyewear.”
Price-Mart has its safety frames in a separate area of the dispensary, clearly marked for those clients to find. The SRx part of the practice is fulfilled in two ways. Either clients come in with their company’s authorization form, or Salazar also goes to companies to perform onsite dispensing.
When it comes to lens materials, Salazar is pushing polycarbonate “because of the safety factors.” About 90 percent of his SRx jobs are in polycarbonate. New options have made dispensing SRx in polycarbonate as well. “VisionEase came out with a new polycarbonate FT 28 in Transitions. In the past, no one had made that.” The rest is CR-39 or glass “for old timers who like the scratch resistance. To get them out of glass lenses, I will give a one-time, one-year scratch warrantee for polycarbonate. That works pretty well, but there are still some stubborn customers who want glass lenses."
Salazar also builds business off of SRx by extending savings to the customer’s family. “We give immediately family 10-percent off for their other eyewear needs. We increased sales big time. A lot of employees also come in for their regular eyewear at 10-percent off.” Authorization forms are kept on file so “we know they and their families are entitled.”
Salazar also makes pricing affordable by packaging it. “We have 150 frames to choose from. People off the street cannot get it wholesale. Lenses for safety run $99 versus $169. If they want to upgrade, it’s more. A lot of companies pay for Transitions.” He noted that about 60 to 70 pecent of SRx jobs he does are in Transitions lenses. While most employers have a total limit of anywhere from $150 to $250 for eyewear, customers tend to be willing to pay out of pocket for photochromic lenses. Salazar also offers a polarized Fantom clip as an add-on sale, and throws in a clip-on case for their car visor so they have the clip ready when they get behind the wheel.
Price-Mart Optical also offers LifeStyle Choices card for purchases. “Only 10 percent get approved, but those who do like using it for additional pairs. They tend to max out their card. I’ve seen approvals from $200 to $3000.”
Salazar notes that customers try to match their safety eyewear to their current dress eyewear, so 80 percent of his presbyopic SRx patients will go with a progressive lens in SRx as well.
Understanding the Niche
In Ohio, where there is less manufacturing than in other parts of the country, there is not a lot of competition for safety eyewear business. For Mike Galliland, who owns Northstar Vision Center with four locations in the Columbus area, safety represents 10 percent of his business, but sees it as an important springboard to other business, and has for the past 25 years. This is why he is willing to do 70 percent of his SRx business by dispensing onsite. The companies with whom he works have anywhere from 100 to 2000 employees. “We will go as far as 45 miles to dispense to them.”
“You have to make sure to get a dispensing fee for your time when they come into your office. The point is to generate new business. Make sure to have a brochure to hand off to them, and encourage families,” he advised. “At the plants, get an hourly rate, and have an optician on site.”
“We go to the plants anywhere from once a week to three times a week,” he told VM. “We try to encourage them to bring the family in to the office, to build trust. A lot of them have insurance that help pay for street glasses. If not, we offer a savings of 10 to20 percent.”
“We are the middle man, filling out the forms, verifying the glasses, and dispensing them to the employees. We charge a $15 fee typically. It’s a small fee, but many get second pairs or family prescription eyewear business,” he said. “You have to be willing to understand the safety frames and how the companies work. Most people don’t understand the concept of providing a service with a limited fee that leads to other, more lucrative, business.”
Providing Southern Comfort
For Jack Holbert, owner of Decatur Optical in Decatur, Ala., the biggest impact on his general practice has been referrals gained through the SRx patient base he has pursued for the past 12 years. He also noted that the biggest change to SRx in he’s noticed in the past three decades is “the styling and the lens materials. Overall, a much more comfortable pair and better looking pair.”
For Holbert, SRx accounts for about 20 percent of his business. “We really pursue it for the peripheral spin-off business. We hope to expose them to our services and have them come back for other business,” he said. Typically, these are second-pair sales, or contact lenses.
But safety eyewear continues to be a steady business, with most companies he services replacing SRx eyewear annually. “There’s a lot of corrosive and scratching problems. We have a broad base of industries we deal with. Some high-tech, some chemical industries. We have a wide base of manufacturing in the area,” he said.
Word of mouth is also a helpful when service is good. “If you get into one company and do a good job, the safety directors talk. There’s a lot of competition here [in Alabama] and we’re all in the same mindset.”
Holbert simplifies SRx for the companies he services by putting together package pricing. “We go in with wholesale pricing on the safety account and put together a packing price for the customers. We reach an agreement with the companies,” Holbert said. “For personal glasses we will do a package discount for second pairs. We get flyers out to all employees so they know the discount.” Decatur Optical also has package pricing for professional fees, sunwear, and contact lenses. “We try to lock a company in so that they cannot afford to go anywhere else.”
Companies differ in terms of what is included in safety glasses. Some allow photochromic lenses and AR, and some are very exclusive on what they want the employee to have. “For presbyopes, customers seem willing to pay for premium progressives.” Holbert uses Varilux as a premium PAL but also offers the Natural as a standard PAL for someone who wants to economize. “We try to maintain the PAL they are working with in street eyewear,” he added.
Holbert, who has owned the 37-year-old business for the past 17 years, told VM that the 2003 ANSI standard for SRx “minimalized the situation for us. We just moved over to the high-impact status, mostly working with polycarbonate. We have some manufacturers whose environments scratch polycarbonate, so we use CR-39. We see very little glass safety eyewear. Some people also prefer glass and like that they can clean them with a shirt tail.”
Quadrupling an Opportunity
While SRx only accounts for five percent of his business, Phil Gillette, owner of Eyeworld in Saraland, Ala., feels that his safety work is significant, since that five percent “might spin off into 20 percent by the time referrals and such happen,” he said. “We’re very, very busy.”
“We’ve been in practice 21 years this and we’ve been doing safety from the beginning,” Gillette said. “We have our own lab on the premises. We do our own grinding. We made our first safety contact during our first three months in business. I would hate to lose any safety business, and over the years we have lost business--due to plant closings.We have 25 safety accounts --15 are active, and out of those 15, three are very active,” he told VM.
At Eye World in Saraland, Ala. a prominent statement for safety eyewear keeps awareness high.
Eyeworld is located right outside Mobile Ala., along a river where quite a few chemical companies are located. “We do a lot of work for them. There are also paper mills and local utility companies that we work with,” he said.
Most of the employees for the companies Eyeworld serves also get a pair of dress glasses. “We also market to their family members with a discount program,” he said. SRx glasses tend to get replaced annually, although some companies also have an additional lens allowance. “The majority of employees also get their eye exams here, too.”
Gillette also only dispenses in polycarbonate or CR-39. “We are not doing any glass safety eyewear. I refuse to. For all practical purposes, when ANSI 2003 went into effect, we stopped. We were the only folks in South Alabama still working with glass. I made a decision that we just weren’t going to do glass anymore,” he noted. Eliminating glass lenses also free up a lot of room for inventory.
Phil Gillette
“It used to be that companies would only pay for the very basic safety frames, but in the last five years, the companies are coming around to paying for something that looks a little better and are more serviceable in the long run,” he said. This acceptance of fashion-forward styling helps Eyeworld to price the frame to them with a price that will be comfortable to the companies.
Along with the trend of more fashion-friendly frame styles for SRx, Gillette also sees an an upswing in progressive lenses. “Several of the companies cover them, but employees are not hesitating to pay the difference. With out pricing structure, it would be about $85 for a premium progressive.”
Volume Number: 20:05 Issue: 4/24/2006
© 2006 VisionMonday. All Rights Reserved
Posted: Mon - April 24, 2006 at 09:43 PM
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