Hilco Vision
Mike Riley, Director Commercial Operations
Mike Riley’s recent return to the Yorkshire business – with a broader experience in the optical supply chain – has ensured he is keen on expanding Hilco Vision’s traditional brand offering to now include M&S Technologies and Bruder Healthcare. There is now an emphasis on dry eye treatments where they partner with Positive Impact and the very significant launch of the Smart System VR headset for perimetry where they are partnering with Frost Optical.
“This VR Headset is a game changer in terms of freeing up the traditionally very large footprint of visual field devices, which also require a darkened room. This CE-marked wearable technology has a plethora of functions, with intuitive software. It produces highly accurate results in moments which can be downloaded directly to the patient record, which speeds up glaucoma screening considerably.”
OptiPlus® powered by SeeGreen®, part of Hilco Vision’s portfolio of sustainable products, has recently received Green Seal accreditation – and has just been launched by Hilco Vision as another new innovation from the USA. Opti-Plus, powered by SeeGreen is a sustainable lens cleaning solution that is packaged in recycled plastic bottles and when placed in kits, is FSC-certified packaging.
Eyewear practices have relied upon Hilco Vision for many years to supply them with all their Lab and Dispensing products, including small parts, and Hilco’s very own Logic® nosepads being top of the list for orders.
“Opticians are quite rightly looking for efficiencies and reducing their inventories wherever they can: that is where the Logic® range of self-guiding, self-tapping, and locking screws and nosepads that are symmetrical to support both push-on and screw-on, prove their worth with their ability to solve just about every challenge in this area. Most practices can reduce the stock of these items and time they spend sorting through them very significantly.”
Hilco Vision, and the team of 20 in Hawes, have been supplying these needs in the UK for 33 years. As part of Hilco Vision, the Mansfield, Massachusetts-based parent company – it has access to some of the most advanced products with more in the pipeline for the year ahead.
Longstanding OSA member, Mike values the collaborative forums of meetings –
“Membership provides a wider knowledge of what the industry is doing, rather than everyone focusing on their own area. We all have a vested interest to work together, as a strong group.”
On that subject Mike would like to see a far greater public awareness of what opticians can provide and the importance of regular visits –
“Everyone knows they go to the dentist regularly and take their children to have their teeth checked, but that message just doesn’t resonate in the same way for opticians – it is a major frustration.”