Carl Zeiss Vision
“We understand the challenges faced by independent opticians and champion and support them as much as we can, with innovative products, easy to access product training, help with online and in-practice marketing, CPD and much more.
“Our Zeiss Experience centre in Birmingham is where we invite customers to spend a day with us to see our technical lab in action, with demonstrations and to discover how we can work together more closely. We are always looking for ways to help independent opticians achieve their business goals – we know it is a challenging market with the cost of living, electricity prices and online competition,” said Paul who worked in practice as an optometrist before joining Zeiss.
Of the 130 Carl Zeiss Vision employees in the UK, the majority are based in Gas Street, Birmingham, promoting lenses, refraction equipment and Zeiss lens wipes.
“Our philosophy is that whatever stage in life a person is we have a lens for them, whether that be Zeiss DriveSafe for enhanced vision when driving in different conditions, or Zeiss ClearView lenses. All clear Zeiss lenses come with full UV protection, and an extensive choice of tints and polarisation.”
Carl Zeiss Vision is part of a 175 year old German foundation company (known as a stiftung in Germany) that originally began life as a microscope manufacturer. Founded in 1846 Zeiss has played a central role in shaping the optical industry.
“As the pioneer of scientific optics we continue to challenge the limits of human imagination. All of our profits are invested back into research in order to grow and develop our business: we have no shareholders.”
The breadth of the Zeiss Group is surprising, but with different aspect of optics benefitting all divisions of the business –
“80% of the world’s microchips are manufactured with Zeiss optics. There is significant cross germination across the Zeiss businesses, with a number of key partnerships, including Zeiss and Williams Racing,” he added.
A keen member of OSA, Paul sees great value in being actively involved in the supply chain organisation –
“The OSA is a great forum to talk to other people within the industry and to share knowledge. By working together we have a greater chance of moving forward in a positive way. The OSA is very useful at this time of great regulatory change, when we are all going through the change together.”
The OSA’s sustainability drive is also useful –
“A huge environmental goal for Zeiss in 2022 was to switch to full green power worldwide, which we are pleased to say we have achieved. This helps us with our overarching plan to become CO2 neutral in our activities (Scope 1 and 2 emissions) worldwide by 2025.”