David Cantor started out as a 17-year-old with the simple ambition of making some spare cash when his journey into optics began in earnest.
He spotted an advert in the London Evening Standard paying £8 a week to work as an optical technician. ‘I just dropped into it,’ he tells Optician.
What followed was an obsession with optics and contact lenses culminating in the formation of a global supplier of specialist products, primarily for hospital patients with complex visual needs.
Cantor’s entrepreneurial spirit emerged in 1964 when he started up a Perspex contact lens plant in Marylebone, London.
Within a decade he had merged with Leslie Silver to create the Cantor & Silver business in the market town of Brackley, in rural Northamptonshire. By the late 1970s, their ‘little lab’ turned its attention to developing a range of specialist soft contact lenses. The timing was right and resulted in market growth and the acquisition of other UK firms including Focus Contact Lenses, CLM and Cambridge Precision.
Nissel Limited was acquired in 2000 shortly after relocation to the firm’s current headquarters in Market Place, Brackley, formerly taken up by supermarket aisles, to create Cantor & Nissel in a traditional town centre setting complete with an optical practice directly across the high street.
It has become a local firm with a global reach, with Cantor estimating 60% of the company’s manufactured goods are exported. The majority of orders arrive from hospitals needing specialist products. ‘Cosmetics and prosthetics are the leading lights,’ he says.
Born in London, Cantor has adapted to rural village life, having renovated a nearby cottage with large grounds to give the rescue dogs he helps a run out in the field. His latest, a cocker spaniel called Bertie, is excited to be having a day in the office and extends his hospitality to Optician with a welcoming wag of the tail.
Minus Bertie, Cantor & Nissel’s latest headcount reaches 56, with the majority directly involved in the production of a variety of toric, tinted, cosmetic and hand-painted custom made contact lenses.
Together with this people power, an important string to the company’s bow as an exporter is having CE accreditation and an FDA-approved diagnostic system for the management of colour discrimination and reading disorders. Its ChromaGen precision tinted lenses are designed on an individual basis for colour deficient patients and people with reading disorders.
Using technology
As the time has passed by, technologies in Brackley have taken great strides – with computerised Nasa-standard equipment using laser automation cutting out the finest optical lens products.
Cantor says: ‘The technology is now much more accurate and every lens is spot on. Over the years we have always invested in machinery and development. You’ve got to be at the sharp end.
‘I’m in the office most days and travel to meet European customers regularly, so I remain heavily involved in the business.’
‘There are only so many specialist contact lens makers,’ adds Cantor. ‘We deal with every hospital in the UK and with some really unusual prescriptions.’
Among the company’s products, 90% are soft lenses and half are prosthetic. He stresses their superiority over cosmetic items available online.
‘You can now buy cosmetic lenses anywhere on the internet,’ he says. ‘It’s dangerous.’
Making a scene
Optician is offered a tour around the Brackley facility, starting in a satellite learning clinic where practitioners can experience fitting specialist lenses for themselves. The main plant is split into lathing, front surface, tints and hand painting areas, plus a sterilisation area.
Other bespoke products being made here help patients with conditions including albinism, amblyopia, chemical burns, corneal scarring, diplopia, esophoria, keratoconus and strabismus.
The company’s other plant, in Hemel Hempstead, has just completed a relocation into larger premises and Cantor seems buoyed by the future.
Aside from hospital work, he has created specialist bandage lenses for lions, elephants and horses. Artificial eyes have also been created for museums and exhibits. ‘It has evolved as with everything in life,’ he says.
With the true fate of Brexit still up in the air, Cantor also seems clear about the prospect of leaving the trading bloc. Cantor, whose original company sold into Europe before the European Economic Community (EEC) even existed, seems unfazed by the changes ahead.
He adds: ‘We are small enough and quick enough, so whatever the problem we will deal with it. My heart says get out. My head says it would’ve been easier if we hadn’t started all this.
‘But we will make the necessary alterations and the world is not going to come to a halt.’
Meanwhile, the design of special effect lenses for TV and film productions (see panel) has helped Cantor & Nissel add wider exposure in a competitive landscape. It works with a network of contact lens opticians to help ensure compliance on the film sets.
While large multinational companies can manufacture five million contact lenses each day, the Brackley lab is happier to make 1,000 specialist ones. In this way, the company has found its niche and wants to stay there.
Cantor adds: ‘We are one of the last independents and we will stay independent.
‘I have no intention of selling [Cantor & Nissel] and the shareholding will stay with the existing directorship. It is quite nice not to have any allegiance.
‘All the decisions we make are made here between me, the dog and the board of directors.’
A glimpse of Hollywood
Guardians of the Galaxy, Game of Thrones, Darkest Hour, Ghost Stories, Spectre and Inferno have been among the film and TV credits secured by Cantor & Nissel in recent years. Tom Hanks, pictured right, wore the company’s bespoke lenses for the filming of Inferno in 2016. Lens artists at the Brackley lab are able to create subtle iris colour change, complete changes, haemorrhaging and dead eyes to adorn zombies and fantasy characters. The design of old age lenses, meanwhile, relies on knowing the age and colour of the actors’ eyes being covered. For example, dark brown eyes require a much heavier opaque effect.