NEWS RELEASE JULY 2009
Daysoft ® eyes further growth as it completes £2.5m headquarters expansion
Daysoft, the Scottish daily disposable contact lens manufacturer, has just completed a £2.5 million investment in its Lanarkshire headquarters and is planning further growth following 200 million sales from its global sales strategy.
The multi-million pound investment has been put in to increasing production capacity and purchasing the 27,000 sq ft building from which Daysoft operates. The result is the creation of 35 new jobs, taking the total workforce at Daysoft to 150.
Daysoft Group has so far sold 200 million lenses, all of which are manufactured at its premises on the Hamilton International Technology Park in Blantyre.
Chairman and founder of Daysoft, Ron Hamilton, said:” The continued growth of our business has boosted our resources at a time when other manufacturers are struggling. We judged this a great time to invest in our building and increase our staff levels.”
The new jobs range from production operators, production technicians, engineers and IT specialists. Most of the staff come from the local area.
Hamilton, who set up Daysoft after his original company Award was bought by Bausch & Lomb for $33 million in 1996, is bullish about the future.
He said:” The purchase of our laboratory and office premises in Blantyre brings our investment this year alone to £2.5 million. Daysoft Group's growing online sales mean that for more clicks we can invest in more bricks. We really feel we have the tiger by the tail and we’ll be looking at other opportunities to grow the business in the near future.”
Daysoft sells its contact lenses to 27 countries via independent opticians. It prides itself on its independence and has challenged the major supermarket chains here in the UK on price and quality. Customers pay £4.99 for 32 lenses delivered to their door in a unique letter-box friendly pack, giving a monthly cost under £10. Daysoft’s website price comparison tables show how wearers can save over £250 per year compared to buying online from other suppliers.
It is Daysoft’s production process that has allowed it to offer high quality daily disposable contact lenses at such low prices. Ron Hamilton’s unifit lens design, an efficient manufacturing and distribution processes have created a combination of easy ordering, comfort for the wearer and remarkable value for money.
Hamilton has a particular reason to be delighted at Daysoft’s continuing success. He launched the original daily disposable contact lens back in the early 1990s. Prior to this his disposable lens concept had been rejected by his employer, a major eye-care manufacturer, because it would compete with its own products so he decided to strike out on his own.
He set up a mini-laboratory in his back garden and spent the next two years developing and patenting a manufacturing process that produced the world’s first daily disposable contact lens.
He reflected:” My belief always was that we could take an extremely high quality disposable lens to the market at an incredibly cheap price. The internet has brought with it opportunities that have enabled us to do exactly that. To be a manufacturer that’s expanding when most are contracting shows that the Daysoft business model is unbeatable.”
-ends-
Notes to editors:
1. Daysoft was set up at the Hamilton International Technology Park in Blantyre, Scotland in 1999. It started selling its daily disposable contact lenses via Independent Opticians in 2001 and in 2006, after the UK Optician’s Act had separated the fitting of contact lenses from their physical supply, Daysoft began selling direct to consumers via the internet.
2. Daysoft has sold 200 million contact lenses via opticians into 27 countries using a combination of Daysoft and own label brands.
3. Ron Hamilton invented the daily disposable contact lens. After securing venture capital funding he and colleague Bill Seden started Award Plc in Livingston in 1993. In 1996 Award was bought out by American eye-care giant Bausch & Lomb for $33 million worth a further $15 million subsequently paid for the intellectual rights.
