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The man brought in to fill Loan's large shoes is Gareth Steer, who joined B&L fresh from his managing directorship of Johnson & Johnson's Nordic eye care business. Cardiff-bred Steer studied microbiology at university but quickly moved into pharmaceutical sales and then marketing. Between 1992 and 1996 he added a distance learning MBA to his qualifications, while working in prescription pharma products and medical devices such as hip and knee replacements. In 1996 he joined J&J as the European business manager for hip replacements and later went on to work in the US in the pharmaceutical business for blood products.
This senior position became a stepping stone for his next role as J&J Visioncare country manager in Stockholm. Having made the move into optics the opportunity arose last year to head B&L in the UK.
Breadth of product range
'One of the attractions of moving to B&L was the breadth of the product range,' he says. 'Not only is B&L involved with lenses and lens care solutions, but also cataract and refractive surgery.'
Steer points out that B&L also owns products like Minims and is becoming more involved in nutritional products, such as Preservision, which aim to combat AMD. Another attractive element was the geography. 'When I joined B&L, I was put in charge of the Nordic and Netherlands regions, and from last September, I was given the additional responsibility for the UK and Ireland. Having a broader geographical area of responsibility has certainly made things more interesting,' he says.
Despite being new to the B&L family, Steer is enthusiastic about the firm's credentials and his remit as the man in the top job. He is enthusiastic about the company's history in all types of lenses - which dates back to the 19th century - and is convinced this gives the company an edge in developing new technologies. One technology he is keen to push is the new SofLens daily disposable lenses.
'What I find interesting is that aspheric optics, as featured in our Purevision and new SofLens daily disposable lenses, are standard in the world of cameras and photography,' he says. 'We expect that aspheric optics - which offer customers crisper, sharper vision - will become standard for contact lenses. Our competitors will most likely try to match our standards here, but our intention is obviously to remain one step ahead.'
This means positioning B&L as a leader in vision and optics. 'The B&L mission is "Perfecting Vision, Enhancing Life", and I want to make that a reality in everything we do. We have the heritage, and we have the expertise, but I don't think we have fully tapped into that yet, and been as successful as we might have been,' he notes. To remedy this, he intends to harness B&L's products and the expertise, and begin communicating this more clearly and consistently than in previous years.
The other part of his brief, he says, is to build a high performing team that can create even stronger partnerships with B&L customers. He wants these customers to see the company as a 'trusted, responsive and knowledgeable' partner that can offer a 'win-win proposition'.
One way to do this is by applying existing B&L technology across the portfolio of mainstream products, such as daily disposables. 'We should have been, and will be, more successful in those areas,' he says adding that he wants to take the company's strengths in toric and multifocal lenses and its aspheric optics technology into mainstream products. 'The new SofLens daily disposable lens has aspheric optics "fitted as standard". We have built this technology into a daily disposable lens for the first time, and we are getting very positive feedback from customers and wearers on that.'
This, he says, is where B&L's responsiveness and knowledge comes in to play. This helps differentiate it from other contact lens vendors, and B&L retailers from other contact lens retailers. Products such as the SofLens daily disposable - which affords the wearer better vision in low light - also bring those points of differentiation.
Noted for innovation
'I want B&L to be seen by our customers as an innovative company that offers good technical solutions,' he insists. 'We were the first to introduce soft contact lenses, the first to offer silicone hydrogel (SH) lenses, the first to introduce a SH toric, and we are still the first and only company to offer a SH multi-focal lens. We have had those points of innovation in the past, and we are now bringing innovation into daily disposables.'
In a statement few lens company bosses would be brave enough to make, Steer admits: 'The UK market is a big daily disposable market and that is an area where we haven't been innovative for a few years. Frankly, we haven't been very competitive there. We were overdue a new offering for the daily segment, that's no shock news. Our product was getting a little bit past its sell-by date but we didn't want to bring out a me-too. We have brought something out with a clear point of differentiation which is the aspheric optics. Better optics and a point for eye care practitioners to talk about.'
Steer also points to B&L's market position in other countries: 'We are a strong global leader in toric and multifocal lenses in many countries, but not yet in the UK. In other areas we have market shares of 50 per cent plus, so this gives us a big opportunity for growth in the UK market, with our toric and multifocal lenses.
SH lenses in particular represent a massive opportunity for B&L. 'We are still only in the middle of the wave for upgrading wearers to SH materials and we now have these in spherical monthly, toric and multifocal designs. The shift from the older material technologies to SH is going to continue to be big area of growth,' he predicts.
Multifocal lenses are another holy grail. 'Since we introduced Purevision multifocals last year, the fitting of multifocal lenses has increased significantly,' Steer notes. 'Many of today's 40- to 60-year-olds would love to be offered the option of wearing lenses.
'B&L's "Sight Over 40" research report showed that 53 per cent of this group would like to try a multifocal lens. The penetration level of multifocal lenses fitted in the US is more than double the UK level. It's a huge untapped area of wearers and since we launched multifocals we have had great feedback about the lens.'
The challenge, says Steer, is to change the misconception that the quality of vision offered by different CLs is the same. 'We want people to seek lenses that provide the best solution for vision, as well as comfort and health,' he says.
'To this end there will be a constant evolution of our products, such as the design tweaks on the "new and improved" Purevision lens that we are showcasing at the BCLA. This features a lower modulus and the introduction of an 8.3 base curve, which will provide a better fit for some wearers.'
Better communications
On the organisational side, B&L needs to be clearer about the information it gives to its customers and more upfront about its strengths. 'We haven't done a great job of communicating those points in the past, but it has to change.'
He also wants to boost B&L's emphasis on service. Complacency in this area is not acceptable as the company should always be striving to offer better and better services to customers. Some changes are already under way, including fresh attempts to understand customer needs and ensuring on-time delivery by introducing a new 24/7 online ordering system (bauschonline.co.uk).
'In other more internal areas, such as marketing and professional support, we have been a little under-resourced and are not yet where we want to be, and we will address that too,' he says.
He hinted that other companies may have stolen a march by being more active in promotional areas, but that those days are over. B&L, he continues, can no longer afford to be modest about its philosophy and its strengths, and these need to be better communication to professionals.
'We are trying to change the whole dynamic of our organisation to make ourselves faster and more responsive and have higher levels of communication in dealing with our customers,' he says. 'Products are important, but you have got to be close to your customers and our surveys have said that our customers would like to see us more.'
Steer is adamant the company is on the up. 'After a tough year, the first part of 2007 is going very well and we have a good momentum. We still have lots to do but it definitely feels like we are on an upswing. Business is cyclical and you have these momentum shifts from time to time. We probably haven't had the best few years at B&L but the momentum is back and I believe that our customers are sensing this and are willing to build even stronger partnerships with us.' ?