Keeping Stock in Safety
How SRx benefits wholesale labs
Keeping Stock in
Safety
How SRx benefits wholesale labs
"We got into prescription safety eyewear because we felt it was necessary for us and our customers," said Keith Cross, vice president of Northeast Lens, now a division of Carl Zeiss Vision. "We're only 10 years old and a lot of other labs were not doing it. When we first opened, and asked customers what they wanted us to help them with," he noted, they asked for help with developing safety eyewear.
According to Cross, AOSafety eyewear predominated in their marketplace, and that working with Titmus and Aden Eyewear, Cross was able to provide quicker turnaround on jobs, sometimes as quickly as one day, for ECP customers.
With one location in Newton Upper Falls, Mass., the lab covers most of New England and parts of upstate New York. Its safety eyewear clients are mostly involved in light manufacturing.
Northeast works with 100 ECPs in its coverage area, and the safety client mix is] about 70 percent small-to-medium companies, and 30 percent medium-to-large companies. Some of the larger companies use more than one ECP to create more convenient dispensing for workers that are spread out geographically.
SRx accounts for about five percent of the company's total ophthalmic business. "We do about 200 SRx jobs a week. SRx has grown slightly over the past couple of years as people become aware of it and prescriptions become more complicated," Cross said.
"A lot of the safety jobs were for guys in small shops," he said. "They might have gone to their local ECP who did their regular eyewear. Our customers approached clients and we were able to live up to their promises [of quicker job turnarounds]. We inventoried particular frames for particular clients. We were competing with safety vision vans, but our ECPs were able to promise safety eyewear produced in half the time the vans could."
Cross told that Northeast Lens also keeps a large stock of safety frames, and
"we limited what we put on the price list. Special orders are still possible, if they wanted something not on that list, though," adding that turnaround "was usually seamless whether it was in stock or not."
Northeast Lens assists ECPs with sample kits, catalogs, and price lists, and offers discounts on safety eyewear so the ECPs' clients will be encouraged to buy their dress eyewear at the same dispensary. "Referrals come with SRx, so that's a major benefit," he noted. The lab also includes safety eyewear in its promotional mailings twice annually, and the safety division is always included in its catalog.
Volume Number: 19:08 Issue: 7/18/2005
How SRx benefits wholesale labs
"We got into prescription safety eyewear because we felt it was necessary for us and our customers," said Keith Cross, vice president of Northeast Lens, now a division of Carl Zeiss Vision. "We're only 10 years old and a lot of other labs were not doing it. When we first opened, and asked customers what they wanted us to help them with," he noted, they asked for help with developing safety eyewear.
According to Cross, AOSafety eyewear predominated in their marketplace, and that working with Titmus and Aden Eyewear, Cross was able to provide quicker turnaround on jobs, sometimes as quickly as one day, for ECP customers.
With one location in Newton Upper Falls, Mass., the lab covers most of New England and parts of upstate New York. Its safety eyewear clients are mostly involved in light manufacturing.
Northeast works with 100 ECPs in its coverage area, and the safety client mix is] about 70 percent small-to-medium companies, and 30 percent medium-to-large companies. Some of the larger companies use more than one ECP to create more convenient dispensing for workers that are spread out geographically.
SRx accounts for about five percent of the company's total ophthalmic business. "We do about 200 SRx jobs a week. SRx has grown slightly over the past couple of years as people become aware of it and prescriptions become more complicated," Cross said.
"A lot of the safety jobs were for guys in small shops," he said. "They might have gone to their local ECP who did their regular eyewear. Our customers approached clients and we were able to live up to their promises [of quicker job turnarounds]. We inventoried particular frames for particular clients. We were competing with safety vision vans, but our ECPs were able to promise safety eyewear produced in half the time the vans could."
Cross told that Northeast Lens also keeps a large stock of safety frames, and
"we limited what we put on the price list. Special orders are still possible, if they wanted something not on that list, though," adding that turnaround "was usually seamless whether it was in stock or not."
Northeast Lens assists ECPs with sample kits, catalogs, and price lists, and offers discounts on safety eyewear so the ECPs' clients will be encouraged to buy their dress eyewear at the same dispensary. "Referrals come with SRx, so that's a major benefit," he noted. The lab also includes safety eyewear in its promotional mailings twice annually, and the safety division is always included in its catalog.
Volume Number: 19:08 Issue: 7/18/2005
Posted: Mon - July 18, 2005 at 03:38 PM
Quick Links
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jun 20, 2009 07:04 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jun 20, 2009 07:04 PM