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Saturday / November 2.
HomeminewsAustralia Leads Rodenstock Closer to Customers

Australia Leads Rodenstock Closer to Customers

From left Sasha Sergejew Melbourne Lab Development Manager, Nicolas Obermeier, Dirceu Martins, and Chris Daw.

Rodenstock Australia is leading the way for its global company, having established state-of-theart edging and glazing facilities in Melbourne, Launceston, and Brisbane, to better meet its customers’ needs. The edge and fit facilities complement Rodenstock’s Sydney laboratory.

Dirceu Martins, Senior Manager Edging and Glazing, and Nicolas Obermeier, Senior Manager Engineering, both from Rodenstock in Germany, were recently in Australia to tour the facilities and catch up with the team.

Mr Martins told mivision that having been proven in Australia, Rodenstock’s model for edging and glazing facilities is now being rolledout in other countries.

“It’s a global strategy. We’ve shifted our perspective from expecting the market to adapt to the way we work, to us adapting to the market, by providing them with a local presence and local support,” he said.

Whereas edging and glazing was once perceived to be a small part of Rodenstock’s business, Mr Martin said that with this shift in focus, it has become “one of the most important departments in the production chain”.

“It’s my belief that we have the best product in the market and now we’re starting to deliver the best service as well. That was a part missing, but we’re compensating for this now,” he said.

The Australian edging and glazing labs work closely with their Rodenstock counterparts throughout the world, discussing processes, sharing experiences, and together devising best practice approaches.

“We’re a global team in the true sense of the word,” Chris Daw, Operations Manager, said. “We’re working together to establish, refine, and grow our facilities so we can better service our local markets.”

With four times greater capacity now that the new labs are open across the country, Tim McCann, General Manager of Rodenstock in Australia, said the new facilities have strengthened Rodenstock’s capacity to support independent optometry with a fast turnaround. The multi-state presence also provides security of local supply ensuring for instance, that in the event of a shutdown in one lab, orders can continue to be processed.

Unfazed by the increasing consolidation of optometry in this country, he said Australia has a growing need for vision correction, thanks to migration, an ageing population, and the increasing incidence of myopia.

“The number of pairs of glasses people are buying is also increasing… so stretch ahead. I don’t know what the market’s going to look like in 20 years’ time, whether it’ll be consolidators, corporates, independents, whatever. But I do believe independents are strong. I believe they’ve got a very firm hold in Australia, and that will continue indefinitely.”

Mr McCann believes advances in technology, such as the incorporation of artificial intelligence in the manufacture of lenses, will also help drive demand for spectacles well into the future.

“And Rodenstock intends to be a part of that, supplying that technology to meet demand.”

GETTING CLOSER

But for now, it’s all about “getting closer to the customer” because Rodenstock believes that with a local presence and stronger relationships, practices will be more inclined to pick up the phone, ask for advice, and use the company’s expertise to resolve more complex visual problems.

Asked whether Rodenstock would consider going the extra step to open a full lens manufacturing facility in Australia, Mr McCann said that’s not on the cards.

He said Rodenstock’s facility in Thailand, combined with local edging and glazing, is the optimal solution, enabling the production of fully customised lenses in fast time, complemented by edging, glazing, and personalised service that is only achievable from a local provider.

“The larger an organisation you are, the less personal you become; regardless of how flexible you want to be in a large facility, you lose that. So, it’s about becoming more personal, getting closer to the customer, but also moving goods less, because freight costs are a huge part of the business,” he said.

Although it required “extraordinary effort both in Australia and overseas” he said, having opened the new facilities, “we’ve already grown substantially, and we believe the opportunity and size in the market is there to continue growing for some time”.

Such is the opportunity that Rodenstock already has plans in place to expand its Melbourne facility, which was opened just six months ago. An additional facility in Perth may also be on the horizon.

As Mr Martins said, “It’s our aim to provide a localised service to every major city in Australia”. Watch this space.

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