Change has been the theme for Caledonian Optical in recent times. Just over two years ago, the lab underwent a £1.2m refit and it is now hoping for a change in the country’s ophthalmic lens sector, because its management is confident the company can now compete with established international players.
Established in 1976, the lab was set up by Scottish opticians Duncan and Todd, which itself had been experiencing significant growth since its formation five years previously. The lab is a division of the Duncan and Todd group and is its primary lens supplier, but the two remain separate entities and Caledonian supplies practices all over the UK and increasingly, to Nordic countries.
As Duncan and Todd’s business has grown, so too has Caledonian. Its current Aberdeen city location is its fourth and, nestled among granite residential houses, the former carpet shop is easy to miss.
The funding came as a result of an initial £5.6m investment in the Duncan and Todd group by the British Growth Fund (BGF). The money was used to not only fund acquisitions, but to develop its manufacturing capability. A further £3.5m was invested to fund the takeover of the 20:20 Opticians chain. More than £500,000 was spent on new machinery, with the remainder funding the cost of the lab’s refit.
While the acquisitions and expansion of the group grabbed the headlines, the role that the new lab plays in the new look group should not be underestimated. Patrick Graham, an investor from BGF and a non-executive director at Duncan & Todd, said at the time: ‘Investing in these state-of-the-art machines provides Caledonian Optical with the opportunity to expand production and take on further work for third parties. Growing the business in this way was one of the factors that attracted BGF to the company in the first place and encouraged us to make our follow-on investment.’
The granite building is typical of the city’s architecture
New look
Investment in the lab was much needed, explains general manager Mike Stewart, who has been with the company for 29 years: ‘Before the refurbishment, we only had one line for lens surfacing and no coating facilities. If a machine encountered a problem, it would take us out of action. We had to invest in two surfacing lines for capacity and to develop our digital surfacing capability, but to do this, we had to have our own coating facilities too so that turnaround times were short.’
Commercial manager Mark Robertson, who, like Stewart, is a Caledonian Optical veteran with 24 years under his belt, added: ‘Only a limited number of labs in the UK have been able to invest in digital surfacing, so if there was a problem in the lab, it meant we simply could not source freeform lenses as a back-up.’
Explaining delays by machines to customers within the Duncan and Todd group was one thing, but explaining delays when the company was looking to build up third party business was another. This, coupled with the fact no coating facilities were onsite and any job that needed them had to be sent away, meant further delays were inevitable. Two surfacing lines were needed urgently if the business was going to grow.
Surprisingly, while undertaking the renovations, the business remained open with no downtime. Equipment was moved around the building while different areas were worked on and new rooms were created. Stewart and Robertson say the staff were fantastic throughout the process and showed a great attitude – although this may have been down to the regular Friday lunchtime pizza deliveries.
Coat of arms
‘The new coating facilities have allowed us to produce coatings that are every bit as good as the major lens brands and offer the same guarantees of two years, in the case of our premium coating,’ says Robertson.
At the heart of the coating facility is a Schneider EBC 900, coupled with a DHC 60 automated dip coat system from the same manufacturer, which applies a hard coat to lenses before adding anti-reflective layers. The equipment is housed within a clean room that has a continuous positive pressure environment to keep the room dust-free. Caledonian says it was the first lab in Scotland to have a fully equipped coating facility and keeping closer tabs on the process has paid large dividends.
In-house Schneider coating facilities have played a pivotal role in the lab’s growth
Feedback has been incredible, says Robertson: ‘Within the Duncan and Todd group, there was sometimes a reluctance to dispense upgraded coatings because the waiting times were longer while we were outsourcing. Before coating was handled in-house, only 35% of jobs specified a coat, but now we’re up to about 85-90%. Now, we can produce a digital freeform lens with a coating in under two days – which is phenomenal and almost unheard of. It has really opened up the market for us. We can now compete with the big names not just on the lens designs on offer, but the delivery times too. We have always had terrific lens designs and quality levels, but the level of service we can offer now is much higher.’
‘Turnaround time for Duncan and Todd practices was seven to 10 days, now it’s three, so the staff are much more confident to dispense coated lenses,’ adds Stewart.
Business is booming
As a result of the lab’s new abilities, two full-time sales people have been taken on to develop business around the country. ‘They have a quality British made product to offer and they have been doing well,’ says Stewart.
Robertson adds: ‘Feedback from opticians has been really positive, and many have said that it’s nice having regular contact with our sales reps.’
Export is something else that Robertson sees on the horizon. ‘It would be fantastic to be able to increase business overseas. Capacity isn’t a problem for us, we can easily double the production work we carry out here,’ he says.
Two surfacing lines were an essential upgrade
The dynamic of being owned by the Duncan and Todd group but undertaking work for independent opticians around the country is not unique, but could lead to assumptions about differing service levels for different customers. However, negativity is seldom experienced says Robertson: ‘We have had instances where practices have said they can’t work with us because of who we are owned by and they are perfectly entitled to do that. However, jobs from the group are not prioritised. We use a lean manufacturing design in the lab and jobs are worked on as they come in.’
From an operational perspective, the way jobs are worked has also completely changed post refit. ‘The flow of the work didn’t work particularly well, so we put a bit more thought into how it could work,’ says Robertson. ‘And when new machines came in, it was a case of “where can we put it?”, rather than thinking where it would fit best,’ adds Stewart.
Work and layout now flows from order processing, to surfacing, and coating before edging and glazing, which both Stewart and Robertson agree is much more efficient.
While talking about efficiency, both Stewart and Robertson are quick to sing the praises of the MEI Systems MEI641 auto edger. ‘Its abilities are extraordinary,’ says Stewart. ‘The MEI edgers are to edging what digital freeform is to surfacing,’ adds Robertson.
‘Some glazing machines could take up to 15 minutes to edge a Trivex lens, but with the MEI it now takes about 60 seconds. It’s a refreshing company to work with. It has come from outside of optics with a fresh set of eyes on optical manufacturing which has brought about some really innovative ideas such as router-based edging.’
In-house Innovation
New technology in lens design is another area in which the company aims to be at the forefront of. Earlier this year, it launched the Shaw lens, a therapeutic binocular lens for patients with amblyopia, strabismus, anisometropia, post-surgical refractive error and concurrent contact lens wear.
The lens design uses specially developed software to control the refractive and binocular components of the Rx. The result is said to eliminate the aniseikonia and anisophoria typically experienced by glasses wearers using conventional freeform, aspheric lenses.
The MEI edger has been to edging what digital has been to surfacing
The Shaw lens is particularly difficult to produce and its creator, Dr Peter Shaw, worked with the company because it had the right equipment, coating and software to make the lenses successfully. ‘It’s great to have something completely unique to our lab and it is particularly good as an alternative to patches for children,’ says Robertson.
Camber lens technology from Younger Optics is another innovation the lab has incorporated into its freeform arsenal. Camber technology uses complex curves on both sides of the lens and is made up of three components: the camber blank, the Rx computation and the patient’s measurements.
The blanks are said to improve on traditional lenses though the use of a continuously increasing base curve, which is of great benefit to progressive lens wearers. ‘Machines making lenses with camber technology are hard to produce and blocking has only a maximum of two degrees tolerance,’ says Robertson.
It is testament to Caledonian Optical’s capabilities, unlocked by the major investment and refurbishment, that working to such margins can be taken in its stride.