By Christie Walker
Contributing Editor
LAKE FOREST, Calif.--With its acquisition of Ocular Sciences (OSI) completed last month, executives of CooperVision plan for a smooth transition during the integration of the two contact-lens companies, backed by extensive customer communication in the first six months.
Parent The Cooper Companies has also made several management changes to bring some former OSI executives into the mix.
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| Announcing CooperVision's post-acquisition at last month's CLES are CooperVision executives (l to r) Mark Bertolin; Mike Menard; Rick Franz, OD; Brad Jones. |
Greg Fryling, formerly chief operating officer of CooperVision, is now its president and chief operating officer. Jeff McLean has been named president of CooperVision's U.S. operations. McLean, who previously was vice president of sales, reports to Fryling to manage all business aspects of the company's new U.S. portfolio.
Brad Jones, previously VP of sales for Ocular Sciences, joined CooperVision as VP of U.S. sales, managing nearly 100 area sales managers and overseeing all private-practitioner, distributor, major retail optical and national accounts.
Six senior directors lead CooperVision's sales-management structure, all reporting to Jones: Mary Angrisani, for Eastern U.S. sales; Mike DeAngelo, Western U.S. sales; Steve Reiman, formerly of Ocular Sciences, inside sales; Bob Scott, formerly of Ocular Sciences, national accounts; and Bill Shelly, previously director of sales administration for CooperVision, authorized distributor sales.
Tom Shone remains as VP of U.S. marketing and serves as chairman of CooperVision's global marketing committee.
Steve Fanning, who had been OSI's president and chief executive officer since August 2001, left the company following the acquisition. Rick Franz, OD, formerly Ocular's VP of professional relations, now has the same position at CooperVision.
CooperVision executives said a key element of the transition process is communication with its ECP and retail accounts.
"We are benchmarking our communications program with customers to insure we are delivering the correct messages and preemptively answering customers' questions and suggestions," said Mark Bertolin, director of interactive marketing and communications for CooperVision. "We are including customers in our feedback; they are involved with our communications program design and implementation, including the live database of frequently asked questions found on the new Web site."
Customer-communication vehicles include press releases, more than 30,000 e-mails sent out to ECPs the day the acquisition closed, direct-mail announcements and messages on both the CooperVision.com site and a new CooperVision/OSI information site: www.Cooper-VisionOSI.com. The company said initial online survey results from that new site indicated customers were positive about the move.
The message "It's Business as Usual" emphasizes enhanced services and support, initiated in the first year where possible, before single operation goals are started, according to CooperVision. For the first year following the acquisition no product-line discontinuations or manufacturing expansions are planned, and customers of both CooperVision and Ocular Sciences will find customer-service functions unchanged, with customers continuing to contact each separate company.
The two firms' separate online ordering systems will be linked but not combined by March 1, with seamless navigation between the two sites planned. The newly formed sales organization will continue to call on their accounts as usual.
The acquisition brought several new products into the CooperVision line, including a new aberration-corrected aspheric lens called Biomedics 55, the Biomedics Toric and Daily Disposables. OcuClear, the new replacement brand for Hydrogenics 60, is said to feature an improved manufacturing process for better quality and customized carton labeling for each practitioner. Biomedics will be the lead brand in the two-week replacement segment, while Proclear Compatibles and OcuClear will retain their restricted distribution to practitioners only.
Looking out three years, Franz said, "Look for silicone hydrogel lenses including toric designs, Proclear daily disposables and second-generation continuous-wear lenses."
"By combining CooperVision's specialty lens expertise and proven optic and material technologies with Ocular Sciences' extensive R&D and product portfolio, including forthcoming silicone hydrogel lenses, ECPs will be able to obtain a wide range of technologically advanced lenses from one source."
