Sauflon plans to take share of CL market

Optician-only solutions specialist Sauflon has made a multi-million pound investment in contact lens manufacturing to carve itself a slice of the UK and international market.

The company has constructed a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Hampshire, capable of making 200 million lenses a year. Stocks of its monthly replacement aspheric lenses, Clear Comfort,  have been accumulated.

Bradley Wells, UK sales director, said Sauflon had built its solutions success through a policy of high-quality British-made products supplied exclusively to the optical profession. It will expand on this success to provide customers with a range of disposable contact lenses.

Sauflon is now making monthly replacement hydrogel lenses incorporating its patented Advanced Edge Technology which, the firm claimed, made its lens more comfortable than competing products. Over the coming months it will add daily disposable, coloured, toric and silicone hydrogel lines.

Scanning and laser-etching technology has been built into the manufacturing process to allow Sauflon lenses to be controlled through the whole supply chain. This would keep sales off the internet and non-optical outlets, said Wells.

Sauflon was founded 20 years ago with a policy of only supplying optical outlets. Since then it has grown to become a major force in the solutions business and built up a contact lens fulfilment business sending out 2.5 million lens-care bundles a year. Wells said: 'Twenty years ago we set ourselves up as an opticians-only business in solutions. With our move into contact lenses history is repeating itself.'

By prescribing Sauflon solutions, practices were better placed to retain patients' business as these products could not be sourced at supermarkets or over the internet, said Wells.

He said the big multi-national contact lens companies had their own interests at heart and were intent on building their own brands. This policy did nothing for individual practices as the products were freely available on the internet and patients were free to switch away from the optician who fitted the lens while staying loyal to the brand.

'There are only four major [contact lens] players now and that is quite unhealthy for the retailer. What Sauflon is saying is that we are a fifth player providing a range of high-quality products at the right price, only to opticians.'

Sauflon is adopting a three-pronged strategy of supplying high quality products, at competitive prices and only supplying them to optical practices. Patient retention was the key the future success of optical practices and Sauflon was supporting opticians, he added.

Providing lenses would take that on a step further. 'Opticians are beginning to fight back.'