If you have any questions regarding the discontinuation of this product please contact your Essilor Territory Manager.

All you have to do is display Crizal in your practice during September or October and send in your photos to be in to win.

Once Essilor have chosen the top 3 window displays you will be the judge! Photos of the top 3 practices will be posted on the Essilor website and everyone, including eye-care professionals (ECP's) and the public can vote for their favourite window display online.

Competition in the New Zealand optical market is increasing, and the introduction of large corporate brands adds pressure to the independent optometry practice. With an in-depth understanding of the optical market and current business behaviour, Essilor want to offer independent optometry businesses the opportunity to improve business resilience in this increasingly challenging environment.

The Essilor Partners Programme

Essilor Partners is a customer support initiative offered by Essilor New Zealand and is unlike anything currently available in New Zealand. Members of this unique programme will have access to unprecedented and comprehensive training in business and marketing strategy and staff education, as well as networking opportunities, local support and the opportunity to participate in key Essilor Partner initiatives.

The Essilor Partners programme is available to Essilor customers who purchase 50% of their lenses directly from Essilor New Zealand and who are current participants in the Essilor Team Rewards programme. For more information about registration please contact your Essilor Territory Manager.

Absolute Retail – An Essilor Initiative

An initiative of Essilor International – Absolute Retail is an independent retail management programme delivered by international experts with over 65 years of cumulative experience in optometry practice management, marketing and education. Absolute Retail education courses are available free of charge to Essilor Partners. Absolute Retail offers two key education courses designed for training new staff and optical assistants, as well as practice managers.

1 - Eyes on Retail Optical Certificate – Training for new staff and Optical Assistants.

The Eyes on Retail Optical Certificate has been designed to provide new staff with a complete introduction to the independent eye-care industry and ensure staff can work effectively within the eyewear sales and reception environment.

The four steps of the Eyes on Retail Optical Certificate

• Eyes on Retail Check In – A new staff member induction check list.

• Eyes on Retail ABC – Three detailed components designed to use in practice to aid you in the induction of new staff members from day one of their employment. The presentations cover an introduction to optometry, and outline of frames and lenses and information on contact lenses.

• Eyes on Retail Face to Face Modules – Your staff member will then attend 9 half day training courses which are designed to ensure the staff member has a sound grounding in the fundamental aspects of an optical assistant’s position.

• In Practice Exercises, Practical Skills and Assessment – participants will receive a comprehensive workbook which will include a series of exercises to be completed under supervision when back in the practice. An assessment will be provided and a certificate awarded on successful completion of the Eyes on Retail Optical Certificate course.

2 - Absolute Retail Management Essentials – Training for Optometrists & Practice Managers.

The optical environment has never been more challenging. To continue to grow your business in this competitive environment is essential. The Absolute Retail Management Essentials course focuses on the five most important facets of your business - Practice Performance, Optical Product, The Practice Team, Marketing and Store Presentation

There are five half-day courses in this component of the Absolute Retail program. Each course is streamlined to highlight those areas most likely to facilitate a change in the way you do business, together with multiple, realistic, practical and achievable actions and suggestions for business improvement.

Additional benefits for Essilor Partners

In addition to the Absolute Retail programme, Essilor Partners will receive support from Essilor New Zealand in the form of:

• Accrual of additional Team points when key performance indicators improve.

• Additional practice details listed on the ‘Find an Eye-care Professional’ directory on the Essilor website (http://www.essilor.co.nz/support_and_contacts/find_an_ecp).

• Local Marketing Support.

Essilor Premium Partners

A selection of practice owners who qualify for the Essilor Partner programme will be invited by Essilor to become Essilor Premium Partners.

Essilor Premium Partners will have access to their own Absolute Retail Business Consultant who, through a series of face to face confidential and private consultations, will offer support and guidance in the development and implementation of a 12 month business plan.

For more information about the Essilor Partner programme, the Absolute Retail training calendar or how to become an Essilor Partner please contact your Essilor Territory Manager.

After successfully launching the Varilux 360º Series with three new designs earlier this year, Essilor has once again broken new ground with their new progressive lens design.

The elite design of Varilux Physio f-360º builds on the success of Varilux Physio and Varilux Physio 360º to offer Enhanced High Resolution Vision™ thanks to Essilor’s exclusive W.A.V.E. Technology™.

W.A.V.E. Technology (Analysis of the Wavefront) is used to analyse the entire beam of light entering the pupil, not just single rays. Higher order aberrations can thus be controlled, to provide higher resolution for patients in all gaze directions.

Varilux Physio f-360º enhances High Resolution Vision™ with the introduction of flexible wearing parameters. Taking into account pupillary distance, vertex distance, pantoscopic tilt, wrap angle and fitting height (right and left), Varilux Physio f-360º can be designed individually to each wearer’s exact requirements.

Specific measuring devices are required to obtain the additional parameters. These five measurements can be taken using either Essilor’s Visioffice dispensing unit or with the comprehensive hand held measuring tool specifically designed to assist the ordering of Varilux Physio f-360º.

Compared to a standard progressive lens, Varilux Physio f-360º improves visual performance by up to 30%. Patients benefit from up to 30% better contrast in far vision, up to 30% wider fields of vision in mid distance and up to 30% easier access to near vision thanks to a custom-located near vision area.

Varilux Physio f-360º will be available from August 2009.

Olivier Chupin, General Manager for Essilor NZ says, “Varilux Physio f-360º reinforces Essilor’s commitment to the New Zealand eye-care professionals by providing the latest in lens technology through our local network of laboratories.”

For further information please contact Lucy Wilson by email: wilsonl@essilor.co.nz or phone: 09 970 7415

Toyota Corolla, the most successful car the in the world has sold 32 million cars since its launch in 1966. In less than 16 years Varilux Comfort has more than tripled these sales.

The first natural vision progressive lens, Varilux Comfort, is based on a very simple principle: giving wearers vision that is as natural as possible.

Since its launch in 1993, Varilux Comfort very quickly established itself as the benchmark against which other progressive lenses are measured.

With the development of Varilux Comfort, researchers focused for the first time on the movement of wearers’ eyes and heads when they looked at objects that were close to them.

The central idea behind the design was to reduce the progression length of the lens to allow wearers better posture in the near vision zone (without the need to bend their heads down to read a sheet of A4 on a desk in a natural position) and at the same time have better control over the edges of the lens to reduce aberrations and provide maximum visual comfort.

This year Essilor have launched Varilux Comfort 360º® - a part of the Varilux 360º Series. The unique visual ergonomics of the original Varilux Comfort design are combined with Essilor’s Advanced Digital Surfacing™ technology to deliver up to 30% wider fields of vision and a superior ergonomic performance, customized for each prescription.

Essilor would like to say a big THANK YOU to all opticians who have trusted and supported the Varilux brand. Essilor could not have wished for a better way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Varilux.

The Varilux 360º Series roadshow is now complete after a whirlwind tour of ten cities throughout New Zealand, culminating at the Essilor Distribution Centre in Auckland.

Celebrating 50 years of Innovation, Essilor took pleasure in presenting the new products – Varilux Ellipse 360º™, Varilux Comfort 360º® and Varilux Physio Short 360º™ - to a large audience.

A Superior visual experience. Nationwide.

The Varilux 360º Series roadshow is now complete after a whirlwind tour of ten cities throughout New Zealand, culminating at the Essilor Distribution Centre in Auckland.

Celebrating 50 years of Innovation, Essilor took pleasure in presenting the new products – Varilux Ellipse 360º™, Varilux Comfort 360º® and Varilux Physio Short 360º™ - to a large audience.

Essilor sales manager Tom Frowde said that the Varilux 360º Series roadshow enabled Essilor to take detailed information on the products to a wide audience across the country, in a setting that was away from the stresses of a practice environment.

“With the invitation open to all practice staff, it was pleasing to see that many owners took the opportunity to encourage all of their staff to attend,” he said.

In 1949 Bernard Maitenaz set out to develop a lens for presbyopic patients and after years of developing lens designs as well as pioneering complex calculations and manufacturing processes, the world’s first progressive lens – Varilux 1 – was launched in 1959.

After a series of major advancements in physiological optics and mathematics and increasingly innovative manufacturing, Varilux have been able to launch six successive generations of lenses with increasingly improved resolution.

50 years on from Varilux 1, Essilor has now developed the Varilux 360º Series, a complete range of proven Varilux designs combined with Essilor’s Advanced Digital Surfacing™ Technology.

The Varilux 360º Series uses patented calculations to achieve optimal optics and Advanced Digital Surfacing™ Technology ensures greater precision.

Patients experience remarkable benefits such as crisper acuity, up to 30% wider fields of vision, improved contrast, unmatched comfort and visual freedom at near, far and everything in between.

Attendees left the roadshow feeling informed about the technical information and patient wearing benefits of the Varilux 360º Series lenses and following on from the presentation we have received comments which indicate confidence in this new technology.

The universal measuring system is designed to take patients through a personalized dispensing process in a highly accurate and user friendly way.

This system offers advanced techonology that will enable practices to grow their business and promote strong customer relationships.

The Essilor Visioffice - a complete dispensing tool for your practice – has arrived!

The universal measuring system is designed to take patients through a personalized dispensing process in a highly accurate and user friendly way.

This system offers advanced techonology that will enable practices to grow their business and promote strong customer relationships.

Essilor Territory Manager, Joanne Henderson, says that the Visioffice gives practices an impressive point of difference. It makes it easier to up sell and offers a real sense of added value for the patients.

Individual customer files which are permanently stored on the system are created and include modules on frame comparison, measurement systems, design guides and a profile builder to help create an understanding of patient requirements.

The Essilor Visioffice accurately measures the entire range of parameters required for all lenses on the market.

Full face 3D images are used to provide the most accurate eye-lens positioning and visual behavior calculations – the only universal measurement system on the market to do so.

“Visioffice is an easy to use dispensing tool that enables practices to measure quickly with high precision.”

“Essilor’s Visioffice is a great help with frame selection and assists with explaining lens features and benefits as well as eye conditions in an impressive way that instills a lot of confidence in patients,” says Joanne.