VM REPORTS: Top Labs Charting the Changing ‘Labscape’ VM’s 25th Top Labs Report By Andrew Karp Monday, September 12, 2016 1:00 AM RELATED CONTENT Top Labs’ Vital Stats VM's Top Labs Performance Analysis Top Lab Execs Reflect on 25 Years of Changing ‘Labscape’ Vision Monday's TOP LABS – 2016 (in alphabetical order) The Top 18 Independent Labs in 2016 at a Glance VM's Top 18 Independent Wholesale Labs by 2016 VM's Top 5 Supplier-Owned U.S. Lab Networks 2016 Methodology View a PDF of this year's Top Labs Report 2016.View a PDF of last year's Top Labs Report 2015.View a PDF of Top Labs 2014. NEW YORK—Vertical integration. Consolidation. Digital design and manufacturing. Breakthroughs in new materials and processes. The growth of managed vision care. Increasing venture capital investment. It’s hard to think of a major optical industry trend over the past 25 years that wholesale labs haven’t been in the middle of and impacted by. That’s because wholesale labs are the industry’s middlemen, the conduit between manufacturers and the eyecare professionals and optical retailers that buy their products and services. Centrally positioned in the optical industry’s distribution chain, wholesale labs are affected by trends both upstream and downstream. Some of the most influential trends, such as those mentioned above, have actually reshaped the “labscape” since 1992, when VM first published the Top Labs Report. This year, as in every year since 1992, VM’s Top Labs Report tracks the progress of the industry’s largest wholesale labs, collectively and individually. The exclusive Report ranks the labs by Rx sales and job output and provides a detailed summary of the products and services they offer, a listing of their management and ownership, and vital statistics, such as the number of employees at each lab. It also chronicles the mergers, acquisitions and other newsworthy developments that have occurred among the Top Labs over the past year. The 2016 Top Labs Report includes comments from veteran wholesalers who offer insights about the changes they have witnessed in the lab business since 1992.