B&L invests &\#163;12m in contact lens factory

The company will plough &\#163;12.8m into its Waterford plant to increase manufacturing capacity for one of its fastest growing contact lens products. The new investment brings the total to &\#163;35m in the site since 1996. Although Bausch & Lomb's fourth-quarter 2000 results were generally bad news, the company's newer products, including the SoftLens66 Toric, PureVision and Bausch & Lomb Two Week, pushed total revenues from contact lenses up 1 per cent. A spokesman said SoftLens66 Toric was one of the most successful products ever developed by the company. He added there were plans to launch the two-week replacement lens for people with astigmatism onto the Japanese market later this year. The investment is providing some positive publicity for the company which has come under fire in the US after its fourth-quarter profits fell 27 per cent. Bausch & Lomb's chairman and chief executive officer William Carpenter said: 'Although the results we announced today were in line with our recent guidance, 2000 was clearly a difficult year for us. 'Our businesses outside the US performed very well, but our US businesses were hampered by a variety of market factors that were compounded by operational issues. We are confident that our performance will improve over the course of 2001 and beyond.' Analysts on Wall Street are predicting a 'challenging' year for the company and as reported last week (News, February 2) BusinessWeek magazine (January 25) has suggested it could be a takeover target.