By Seth J. Bookey
Contributing Editor

NEW YORK -- In today’s competitive marketplace, eyecare professionals and wholesale optical labs are finding new ways to develop profitable niches, and with more workplaces needing to stay OSHA compliant and protect their employees, pursuing a safety prescription (SRx) eyewear program is a positive way to build business.

It’s not as complicated as it might seem. Providing SRx as an option has proven a good way to bolster day-to-day business without major changes to a lab’s operation. Even labs that don’t aggressively market their SRx services still find it a popular, profitable business. For labs and their ECP accounts, SRx is also a reputation-builder.

With more and more industrial business requiring safety eyewear on the job, there are Rxs to be filled, and labs are going after that business, even if it’s not in their own backyard. By following up leads and providing companies with streamlined pricing and packages for safety eyewear, keeping employees in SRx is easily done around the corner or across the country.

When labs facilitate dispensing of SRx for eyecare practitioners, they also create a win-win situation for everyone. Taylor McStay, an optician at Lakeway Eye Clinic in Gillette, Wyo., noted that “the labs set up the safety contacts for us. The employees come in here and usually get two pair a year, or as needed.” McStay also noted that employees who require safety eyewear are well educated about their options, and regardless of their work situation, they are seeking progressives, safety sunglasses, and even Transitions safety lenses.

McStay also noted that when it comes to keeping current with the latest safety eyewear requirements, “The labs take care of all that,” she said. Lakeway works on SRx programs with RiteStyle and Twin City optical laboratories. Lakeway’s safety clients include employees who work on the railroads, welding, oil, methane, and electrical companies.

Success through Simplicity
At Precision Optical in Creston, Ia., safety prescription eyewear has been a profitable niche that has been growing even more this past year. Co-owner Mike Tamerius attributes this growth to consolidation among U.S. businesses in general, where “more savvy business people are purchasing other businesses and are looking at every way to save money.”

Mike Tamerius

The lab has seen 25-percent growth in safety eyewear in 2005 over 2004, with the category accounting for about 10 to 12 percent of the lab’s jobs. Tamerius noted that the lab’s overall business growth was 30 percent, so the growth in safety was not out of proportion with the rest of the lab’s business.

Precision’s growth comes via helping their independent ECP accounts pursue growth. “We don’t have a full-time sales rep for safety,” Tamerius points out. “We get leads from customers who might say, ‘There’s a motorcycle plant down the road from us with terrible [safety] work from their suppliers,’ and we then approach them. The lab does not have a full-time sales rep for safety. “Our approach is, let’s help our customer secure more business in his area. We very rarely solicit an account unless a customer has given us a lead.”

Tamerius also comments, “People expect more from their suppliers. The traditional companies that have been strong in safety have been losing ground, as have regional labs. Folks are now buying their supplies on a more national basis.”

Precision Optical has been doing safety eyewear work since for all of its 14 years, and much of it comes from factories with about 500 employees.” That seems to be the niche we’ve created,” Tamerius said. As a result, Precision has been getting a lot of work from outside its immediate area.

 “We have frames they can choose at reasonable cost. People want to know ‘what’s the bottom line, and how much are we going to have to pay each year. We do a lot of packaging with safety eyewear,” Tamerius told VM. “We’ve always positioned ourselves as a no-frills, high-volume provider.”

Precision’s approach to pricing safety eyewear follows the same no-nonsense approach. “We use firm, fixed pricing--it is important that companies know what the bottom line is. We have three price points on our safety, and that’s it.” Precision does work out different pricing, however, for its clients with fewer than 50 employees.

Precision works with about 25 to 30 ECPs across the U.S. “We build loyalty with larger plants by finding [ECP] sources in their community. Plants love a single source, and they like making one payment a month to us,” Tamerius told VM. “We take leads and market directly to the company, working with an ECP account in that area to secure it. We try to provide incentives to get employees to go to one source. We can offer a fixed, lower dispensing fee, versus the usual $35 to $50--or give some money off to the company per job.”

Package pricing has been a hit with Precision’s safety clients. “One thing that resonated early on with safety directors was that they couldn’t make head nor tails of a price list from a lab. We came in with a guarantee of making safety eyewear in any Rx within a choice of ten safety frame styles for $60. From there, they can decide about add-ons,” he said. Progressives, transitions, tints become the add-on items. The lab has three package-price structures for PALs-value, standard, and higher-end. “Most companies have an upgrade charge. We have standard pricing for trifocals and progressives,” Tamerius added, “Most employees are willing to pay the upgrade charge.”

Precision treats its safety work like all the other jobs, with most deliveries made next-day.

“The big benefit to the ECP is that they have a captive customer who will bring in family or buy second pairs. It helps our traditional business in a big way and builds loyalty.”

Streamlining the Process
“More and more independent practitioners are getting into the safety business to supplement their patient load,” points out Bill Inman, chief operating officer and senior vice president of the lab at CSC Optical of Watsonville, Calif. “We’ve referred some customers to accounts so they can handle the dispensing aspects of it. Sometimes they come to us and ask what we can do for them. We’ve developed a special safety price list, brought in a complete line of safety frames.” Safety prescription eyewear accounts for about two percent of the lab’s business.

Bill Inman

CSC’s safety business is nationwide, but mostly comes from California. “Particularly premium safety business,” Inman noted. “We have basic frames that are supplied and then there are upgrades at all levels. In the PALs we have upgrades to premium progressives.”

Simplifying matters for clients, CSC has pricelists for safety eyewear that include the frame. Standard lens options include single vision, FT28, trifocals, and PALs. “In the PALs we have three tiers of PALs -standard, medium, and premier. SOLA VIP would be a standard PAL. It follows closely with VSP’s designations for progressives. We have options like FT35 as an add-on to the price,” he noted.

As a further convenience to its ECP clients, CSC provides them with a price list that they can then “mark up for their own bidding, and determine their own fees. Most of them provide their safety clients with their own packages. We can supply them with a fixed set of safety frames. They have to let us know what kind of displays they want,” Inman said.

CSC has its own line of safety frames, and supplements them as needed with selection from Titmus and On Guard.

Keeping Competitive
“Safety has become extremely competitive and a lot of labs see it as a competitive niche for themselves. A lot of companies are going after the safety market,” Bill Sawyer, safety manager for RiteStyle Optical, told VM. The Omaha, Neb.-based lab, which is still family owned, does an SRx eyewear business that accounts for 12 percent of its business.

“It’s been growing in the past few years since 9/11,” Sawyer said, when the terrorist event led to some factory shutdowns that affected RiteStyle’s SRx business. “We have five reps across the country who make ophthalmic calls,” he added. Sawyer and another staffer cover a five-six state area; RiteStyle also has -house safety coordinators.

Bill Sawyer

The lab does not do package pricing, but “we are extremely competitive. We haven’t had to go to a package price to be competitive. Everything is individually priced, as are add-ons. We do have some preferred pricing for larger accounts,” Saywer noted. One of those larger accounts includes Union Pacific railroad, which has 22,000 employees.

Sawyer has seen a variety of popular add-ons that some employees are willing to pay for themselves. These include Transitions lenses, progressives, AR coating, and scratch coatings. The lab even still sells glass SRx for those customers who prefer it. “Some clerical people like AR. Computer lenses are also getting some attention now also so we’re promoting it more and more,” he added.

RiteStyle helps ECPs with marketing and setting up a safety area in the dispensary. “We get some sample frames that we can put into offices so we can set them up with some displays without financial outlays. We can custom-design things as needed. We inventory a lot of safety product here in the lab and send out a frame if needed. Most ECPs have one of each safety frame. Offices tend to have about 25 frames on hand-that’s a nice collection,” he said.

RiteStyle does some onsite dispensing but usually finds optical shops near its safety clients to perform eye exams for employees.

RiteStyle also makes sure employees get their safety eyewear as soon as possible. “We treat safety the same as we do ophthalmic. We try to get most of our frames in two days to clients. We are in a position to ship anywhere from 900 to 1000 jobs a day, so we have an efficient system. Safety gets out equally fast as other jobs.




A Note to VM Readers:

This article is the first in VM’s Second Annual Series about Rx Safety Eyewear. In the April 24 issue, VM will look how “ECPs Discover the Power of SRx.” Future stories will explore “Safety Products at Work,” “Rx Safety Leaders,” “Rx Safety on the Home Front,” and how companies new to eyewear safety compliance are finding their experience with the optical industry.