DETROIT—It seems that optical groups in the Detroit area are getting a lot of attention these days. Perhaps that's because in a city that is infamous for its recent economic woes, the various optical retail chains that serve this market are not only surviving but thriving, remodeling and adding locations at a healthy pace. (Vision Monday's dba section has already reported on the region's Henry Ford Optimeyes and SVS Vision.)
Another example of the area's burgeoning market is Co/op Optical, acquired out of bankruptcy by WCE, LLC in October of 2012 and rejuvenating its business over the last few years. "We did it in a way as to not harm any customers. At 5:30 pm on a Tuesday, Cooperative Optical Services, the former owners, ceased to exist, and WCE took over, immediately hired all of the employees and opened the stores the next day," said owner/president, Robert Evangelista.
After dwindling from annual revenues of $20 million to $4.5 million at the time of its bankruptcy, the group has since rebounded to $6.5 million in 2014 and is expected to generate $7.2 million with eight stores at the end of this year.
The company has been operating in Detroit for over 50 years, and prior to the economic downturn a few years ago, it had 17 locations and a vision insurance business. After the company lost its insurance business, transferring its administration to Davis Vision in late 2011, the non-profit insurance-based company's downward spiral ended in bankruptcy in 2012.
"The company didn't deserve to die. It had extremely loyal customers that went back generations. You can't buy that," said Evangelista, who credited the turnaround not only to the devotion of the customers but also to the company's own loyalty to its vendors, as well as a dedicated staff.
The company-owned lab, which produces 100 jobs per day for the group's eight locations, is an exclusive lens partner with Carl Zeiss Vision (with some specialty lenses coming from Vision-Ease). "Zeiss put together a package that helped us with the heavy lifting," Evangelista told dba.
All of the equipment is either Gerber for generating or Santinelli edgers and tracers for finishing. The lab management system was upgraded to Labzilla. The eight optical locations have all been integrated with My Vision Express practice management/electronic health record software.
When dba caught up with Evangelista at the recent Vision Expo East in New York City, he said, "When I come to this show, I only visit my partner booths. I'm loyal. They see what we are trying to do and say 'We'll help you' because they get it."
WCE's vendor loyalty translates to frames as well, selling Viva and Luxottica products, and more recently, sourcing its value-priced frames that sell for up to $100 all from Ideal Optics. Consolidating this portion of its business under a single vendor has enabled the company to reduce its costs of goods sold by 6 percent.
All stores have been stocked with 1,000 new frames and over 200 sunglasses, featuring designer brands such as Gucci, Tiffany, Giorgio Armani, Versace, Coach, Polo, Ray-Ban, Harley Davidson, Guess, Ralph Lauren, Helium Paris, Candies, and more.
In addition to the upgrades made in the approximately two years since the company was taken over, a statement from WCE explains what has stayed the same: "All employees working at the former company at the time of purchase were hired for the new company. WCE invited the union to continue to represent the new company's employees. Wages were not cut and remain at the level of the former company. The company will always maintain its headquarters in the city of Detroit. The company will always operate the largest manufacturing lab in the city of Detroit because someone has to believe that Detroit still builds the best."
"It's been an uphill battle the whole way," said Evangelista, who noted that while "last year was supposed to be the year we turned the corner," the company's number one location, responsible for 18 percent of overall sales, was damaged by a flood that took it offline for ten months.
Still, the company continues its resurgence with plans to remodel a couple more stores this year and looking toward possibly opening one or two new locations. This growth is made possible, in part, by the fact that the company has no long-term debt, Evangelista told dba, operating and growing "all out of cash flow. We run lean," he said, crediting his 56 dedicated employees with being "all in and emotionally engaged. This is their baby too. We've been around 50 years, but this is a start-up."