While Wrexham has long been well known within the optical world as the home of Hoya UK, it is fair to say that the Welsh city has assumed a more prominent position in the minds of the public over the past few years.
This has largely been due to an ongoing sports documentary television series on the local football club’s takeover by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, which has led to on-field success and a buzz around the city.
Hoya sponsors the digital screens within the club’s stadium and has also been doing its best to add to the feel-good factor going with a revamp of its manufacturing facilities and offices in the city.
‘The Wrexham facility and the ability it gives us to produce within the UK is a cornerstone of the business,’ says Martin Batho, managing director at Hoya UK. ‘We feel that it allows us to offer a level of service, particularly our fast-track service to independent practices, that we otherwise could not.’
In a sign of commitment to keeping lens production in the UK, the company has recently upgraded the facility to the tune of £3.5m, with £3m spent on manufacturing and £500k on the front office.
‘We have always invested in the facility but even more so recently to deliver our new Meiryo coating to practices,’ says Batho. ‘It is a leading-edge product that offers big improvements in durability and reduced reflection. To produce it on a repeatable basis, we’ve invested in new anti-reflection coating and hard coating equipment.’
Energy efficiency
Another result of the investment on the manufacturing side is improved energy efficiency, which ties into a top priority for Hoya: sustainability.
‘We recognised that some of the equipment that we were using, and some of the supporting plant architecture processes, were quite heavy in terms of carbon emissions and energy consumption,’ says Batho.
‘There’s a lot of work going on at Hoya on a global and local level to reduce its carbon footprint, and the investment allowed us to make substantial improvements. What we have done so far puts us halfway along a three-year plan to improve our manufacturing technology for production and environmental purposes.’
Batho notes that the front of house investment has created a modern, versatile space to host customers and deliver training, as well as providing a new home for the company’s expanding customer service team. Providing training is very important to the company, he says, as it enables practices to leverage the company’s products and technology effectively.
‘We see the facility as a centre of excellence from a manufacturing and training point of view,’ says Batho. ‘In-person training is a significant part of our support package for independent practices and we will be launching a new training academy for eye care professionals and optical assistants.’
Hoya further supports independent practices with its Visionary Alliance. ‘This is a partnership programme that rewards, supports and
creates value for independents outside of pure lens supply,’ says Dale Hughes, pictured right, marketing manager at Hoya UK. ‘It is basically our suite of support tools for independents.’
Hughes notes that Visionary Alliance delivers a range of value-added services, including multi-pair promotions, business and sales training, digital marketing, audiology and recruitment services.
‘The latest additions to the Visionary Alliance are explainer animations and equipment deals via Nidek,’ says Hughes. ‘We’ve teamed up with Captivate so that our customers can get explainer animations direct to their mobile phone.
‘Hoya has a global contract to work with Nidek, which means in the UK we partner with Birmingham Optical to offer our customers a range of instruments and kit. We are currently in the process of making a new visual field analyser available.’
Elsewhere but still on the subject of technology, Hoya has updated its dispensing devices.
‘The VisuReal Master AI is easily integrated into practices thanks to its flat and ergonomically pleasing design,’ says Andy Sanders, pictured below, professional services director at Hoya UK. ‘It really has no footprint at all; it can go onto a wall.’
He adds, ‘Physically, it is similar to the previous iteration, but all the hardware inside has been changed and the software now features AI, with the result that it is really easy to operate. It’s controlled by either a laptop or an iPad, or any other sort of tablet device. The process for the patient is really fast and accurate.’
Sanders explains that the VisuReal Master AI takes two images and builds a 3D picture. There is no sighting attachment and the device can automatically detect the shape of a given frame.
The company will shortly be launching VisuReal Move AI, which is specialised for use on an iPad and is combined with an all-in-one measurement temple fitting worn by the patient.
‘This version does the calculation locally on the iPad and offers fast processing and ease of use,’ says Sanders. ‘In addition to AI automated shape detection, it also incorporates a back plate that goes onto the iPad to centralise the optics and improve the image quality. It’s a fantastic device.’
Myopia matters
Hoya’s overall mission as a global company is to provide sustainable vision correction for people throughout their entire lifetime. The company’s ability to achieve this for the youngest cohorts has been significantly boosted in recent years by Miyosmart, Hoya’s flagship myopia control lens.
‘Miyosmart has been a real success for us,’ says Batho. ‘Obviously, Hoya was first to market with an ophthalmic myopia control lens. Globally and locally, we take the view that, while what you lose vision-wise through myopia is not recoverable, patient data shows that you can protect your child from progressing. We feel Miyosmart is the smart way to manage myopia in children.’
Batho says Hoya is working globally to give more children access to myopia management. Notably, Alexandre Montague, CEO at Hoya Vision Care, launched the #ActNow campaign at the Global Health Summit in Geneva on May 31, 2024.
‘We feel it is really important to get the message out to parents and ECPs, and to some extent children themselves, that there’s no time to waste,’ says Batho. ‘When you think that half the world’s population is likely to be myopic by 2050, then it is clearly time to act. We need to catch myopia when it’s in its early stages with children. Myopia management is a huge deal for us.’
Miyosmart is at the forefront of the company’s efforts in the field of myopia management and assurance in the product is backed by an ever-increasing litany of evidence.
‘Back in October 2023, we launched our campaign “Confidence Through Evidence”,’ says Sanders. ‘This was to give practitioners greater confidence in the product by highlighting all the studies that have been done with the Miyosmart lens. We’ve got a two-year randomised control trial and we have the three-year and six-year follow-up data that was published.
‘So, after six years, we can say that, on average, myopia in those children that were treated for the full six years increased by less than a dioptre. To be precise, it was 0.92 dioptre, and their axial length increased by 0.6 millimetres, which is very similar to natural eye growth.’
Sanders tells Optician the other significant learning from the data collected to-date is that children who wore the lens for a period of three-and-a-half years and then wore a single vision lens for a subsequent two-and-a-half years period did not suffer any rebound in prescription. ‘So, what was gained in the initial period was not lost,’ he notes.
Sanders makes the point that a common question from ECPs in relation to Miyosmart is whether Hoya has any research on UK children. ‘The answer to that is yes and we will be presenting the two-year data from a three-year observational trial in September this year,’
The product was also boosted last year by the launch of two sun versions: Miyosmart Chameleon, which is photochromic, and Miyosmart Sunbird, which is polarised.
‘We are trying to encourage children to spend more time outdoors,’ says Batho. ‘We know that time outdoors is an important factor for a child’s ocular development and wellbeing and these sun products help ensure the continued beneficial effect of Miyosmart lenses.’
Additional activity in the myopia sphere for Hoya UK has included the launch of an excellence program to provide intensive support to the practice teams and boost the knowledge and confidence for support teams to hold myopia conversations, building on the recommendations made by an ECP.
‘New for 2024 is Miyosmart in Practice,’ says Batho. ‘This is a series of live webinars for support teams to learn more about myopia and Miyosmart to widen the availability to more practice team members. We have also appointed a team of dedicated myopia consultants in the field to increase education and awareness of this important category. They will focus purely on this area, supporting practices to engage more effectively with their customers.’
