Waterford factory consolidates share of market for sunglasses

TOTAL of 125 extra jobs are planned for the Bausch and Lomb sunglasses plant in Waterford before the end of next year. The plant, which had a turnover of $100 million in 1995 and makes Ray Bans, currently employs approximately 350 workers.

The company has decided to extend operations at Waterford from one shift to two, starting next year. This follows a move to add lens edging and metal brazing facilities at the factory. It is estimated that the added value of the sunglasses operations in Ireland, will increase by between 30 and 40 per cent.

The decision to add new processes followed Bausch and Lomb's announcement that it would concentrate sunglass manufacturing operations in three global product delivery centres, in San Antonio, Hong Kong and Waterford. The Irish factory supplies Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Up to now the Waterford plant had been fabricating plastic sunglasses such as the "Wayfarer" and assembling 90 per cent of the sunglasses sold in its section of the world market.

Sunglass lenses are cut to shape in a process known as lens edging.

Brazing of gold, silver and black metal frames is similar to soldering. Lenses also undergo "drop ball" testing in Waterford to ensure that they are shatterproof.

The object of the reorganisation is to shorten the lead time in getting new products to the market, in what is a very fashion oriented business. Bausch and Lomb aims to make its global operation more responsive to consumer demand, said Mr Brendan Power, general manager of its operation in Ireland.

Demand is rising for new products, with large growth in the youth market. A great deal more advertising and promotion has been committed to new products like the "Sidestreet" and "Orbs" brands.

Production at the Waterford Industrial Estate will be streamlined. Existing operations will now take up about one third of the area which had been used The new processes will be integrated into what will become a totally vertically integrated manufacturing plant, Mr Power said. Equipment will be substantially installed by the end of this year.

"We had consolidated our position in the global eyewear manufacturing division. We went to global management and won out for this region. As a result we will have a more solid operation here," said Mr Power.

Bausch and Lomb's sunglasses plant has been based in Waterford since 1982. It moved to a new 120,000 square feet facility in 1991. The corporation's nearby contact lens plant employs approximately 700 people.

The Waterford plant is the only one outside the US which carries out every stage in frame production. It is the only facility outside America which can approve the standards of Ray Ban.

There is internal competition between the manufacturing units and Waterford has to compete with Texas and Hong Kong. Productivity, quality and tax incentives have been key elements in the Waterford plant's expansion.

Bausch and Lomb's 1991 investment of £17 million in the custom designed facility on a 15 acre site in Waterford was backed by the IDA. Initially distribution was done through Holland though this function was later transferred to the Irish operation.

There is a strong international demand for the company's product. Demand for Bausch and Lomb's product is high and Mr Power views eastern Europe with particular interest. "That territory is opening up and we will be fighting for our market share," he said. New products are being developed to cater for fashion and social trends.

A total of 30 per cent of Bausch and Lomb's staff are Irish graduates in engineering and chemistry.

The company's first developed the famous Ray Ban shades in 1937. Many of today's popular Ray Ban sunglasses have their roots in the culturally influential decades of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

The Irish operation is the company's most advanced sunglass manufacturing operation outside the USA. Worldwide the group employs 15,000 people in 29 countries. It has been in optical manufacturing since 1853 when two German immigrants to the US opened a retail optical goods shop in Rochester, New York.