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Hubert Sagnieres officially assumed the roles of both chairman and chief executive officer of Essilor International on Jan. 2, 2012 and met with Vision Monday for an exclusive interview three days later at the 2012 Essilor national sales meeting in Miami Beach, Fla.

CEO since Jan. 1, 2010, and now with the added responsibilities of chairman, Sagnieres stands at the helm of this international spectacle lens company with 50,000 employees in 54 countries. This global reach offers him a unique perspective on eyeglass manufacturing and distribution throughout the world in general and in the U.S. specifically. Essilor’s worldwide leadership was recently acknowledged by Forbes magazine, which ranked the company as number 25 among The World’s Most Innovative Companies.

Against the backdrop of the Essilor meeting, Sagnieres discussed with Vision Monday a wide range of issues affecting the global optical industry. Among the topics he addressed were the wide range of unmet needs related to vision care throughout the world, Essilor’s innovation mission, the adoption rates of new technologies in the U.S. and other world markets, specific new product initiatives such as Optifog lenses and Crizal UV, Essilor’s continuing acquisitions, and the company’s desire to increase its social sustainability initiatives in 2012.


 
“We are lucky to be in an industry where we are providing something that everyone needs, which is good vision.”
 ̶ Hubert Sagnieres, Chairman & CEO, Essilor
VISION MONDAY: Starting with a broad look at the vision care business around the world, how do you see the conditions for the industry and Essilor’s direction in the year ahead?

HUBERT SAGNIERES: We are lucky to be in an industry where we are providing something that everyone needs, which is good vision. With 7 billion people in the world in 2012, and 4.2 billion of them needing vision correction, this is what we are focusing on. For more than 160 years, Essilor has focused on improving vision—that is where we spend all our energy and on which we are also building a very sustainable business for the long run. As you know, of those 4.2 billion people, 1.7 billion correct their vision, although 2.5 billion do not. We’re actually developing worldwide action for both parts of those populations. We can talk later about what we are doing to improve vision for the 2.5 billion through social business and charities, which are two very different things, but if we stay focused on the 1.7 billion people, this is where Essilor, with its now 50,000 colleagues/employees, are actually working every day.

VM: Because the economy has been so much of an issue for all of the world in the last couple of years, do you feel positive about the way things ended up in 2011 for the vision care field as a whole, and are you optimistic about the conditions for business going forward?




“You can’t stay in an industry doing one type of product, eyeglass lenses, for over 160 years, being the leader of that industry, without innovating constantly on products and services.”
 ̶ Hubert Sagnieres, Chairman & CEO, Essilor
Viewing a World “At Two Speeds”

SAGNIERES: For our industry and for Essilor we are quite optimistic. What we have seen over the past few years is that when the economy is in turmoil, when things are not that good, people concentrate on what is important for them, and making sure they have great vision is something important. We see a world at two speeds—what has been true for the full economy is also true for the optical industry. We see mature countries growing at a slower pace. Fast-growing countries like India, China, those in Asia or Latin America are catching up because there is a massive population with access to higher income. In mature countries, in the U.S., in Europe there is a trend to much better products. What’s specific to our industry is that even in mature countries, like the U.S., key categories of products are sometimes under-represented.

Compare for instance, what’s going on in China now or in all of Asia where anti-reflective coating is between 80 percent and 95 percent of the market. The U.S. is still dragging behind in this category. Remember when we introduced Crizal to the market in 1996, the AR market was then 6 percent or 7 percent penetration. It has moved up to 35 percent, but it’s still low because even at 35 percent this means actually two out of three Americans have vision with glare. We can say the same thing about progressive lenses. This is the only country in the world where one out of two of the lenses for presbyopes are bifocals.

One of my dreams, specifically for the U.S., is to make sure the industry catches up with great products. The development of such a category in the U.S. is way too slow. All the optometrists, the opticians, all the leaders of this industry in the U.S. should endorse this trend and accelerate the rolling out of better vision in the U.S.

VM: What do you think has inhibited the progress of those products in mature markets, and what will facilitate their growth?

SAGNIERES: The change of behavior. People are using more computers, putting pressure on themselves for a better life, on being better at school and these things are forcing us to pay better attention to our vision. In mature countries, people say, “Things are tough. I need to concentrate on what’s important. Vision is key. I will cut my budget on certain things, but I will not cut on my vision.” We have seen people upgrading to make sure they are getting the right vision. China has huge growth for lenses for kids at school because parents are paying attention to their kids’ education. Other trends we have seen in the past few years thanks to technology are customization and personalization. Digital surfacing allows technology to make more personalized lenses.

VM: With the U.S. having so much more potential, how is Essilor facilitating the new technologies to help eyecare professionals explain and dispense?

SAGNIERES: We all have a role to educate, educate, educate to make sure that everyone, consumers when they are in the street or when they are visiting their doctors, understand that there are a lot of new lenses which will allow them to live better because they will see better. The U.S. market has a huge potential. It’s the responsibility of the 40,000 eyecare professionals to fulfill that need.