Interview with Balester Optical

EyeCare Professional: Please provide a brief overview of the history of Balester Optical.

Dale Parmenteri: Balester Optical is family owned and was started in 1934 by current President Heather Balester's grandfather. The company was sold and briefly operated as one of the labs under the umbrella of the Itek corporation in the 1970's until Heather’s father Fred J Balester and uncle James Balester repurchased the company in 1979.

We operate one location in Wilkes-Barre, PA, serving much of the East Coast with the majority of our business coming from Virginia to Massachusetts where we have sales consultants. 

Balester's Crizal AR Coating System.

Balester's new Schneider digital lens system.

ECP: What is Balester's overall philosophy to customer relationships (i.e. building and enhancing customer practices through education)? 

DP: We are committed to providing the newest technologies available in the industry including in-house digital lens processing, 5 axis lens edging, and multiple in-house brands of No Glare (AR) treatments. In addition, we maintain an experienced sales force that is ABO certified in an effort to build relationships with our eye care practitioners, helping them manage and grow their practices through education, staff training and benchmarking. This combined with excellent customer service is our daily goal.

ECP: Please explain in detail the Balester Advanced lens. 

DP: We currently process all Essilor and Shamir digital lens designs in-house. These in-house designs and the designs we distribute from Zeiss and Hoya are great and we encourage all our ECPs to recommend them from the exam chair. However, many of these designs have high royalty and click fees associated with their brands making them unaffordable to the masses. Offering private label designs like our Balester Advanced and Ultimate allows us to provide a fully compensated digital lens design in-house, priced where conventional progressive lens are, so everyone can be offered digital. In addition, it allows us to provide digital single vision lenses priced at a point so the doctor and staff can start the next generation off with digital lenses to compliment their digital life styles with iPads, iPhones, Droids etc. Both of our designs are compensated and can incorporate vertex distance and pantoscopic tilt into our lens processing software. 
The Balester Advanced is aimed more at the emerging or younger presbyope, providing a wider distance field, while the Ultimate is designed for the more mature progressive patients with a longer intermediate corridor and reading area. Both have a fitting range from 14 mm to 25 mm. The bottom line with digital lenses is their ability to take into account the patients eye movements throughout the lens prior to processing the lens and then digitally customizing that lens to lessen the power and axis changes throughout the lens, providing wider fields of vision and removing the unwanted distortion that patient’s accommodated in conventional designs.

ECP: What can you tell us about your company's "second pair" program? 

DP: We have a four part practice management program our reps work through with our ECPs. First is capture rate assessment and benchmarking the practice, second is recommending and dispensing second pairs, improving the bottom line and lastly, growing revenue.
In reference to second pairs, we teach our ECPs to focus on dispensing second pairs and the techniques to be more successful in doing so. We also provide a 25% invoice discount on second pair polarized SV, ST and PALs in addition to a 25% invoice discount on 2nd pair PALs with one of our in-house No Glare (AR) brands applied. We offer this so the ECP can pass some of this through and increase the number of second pair lenses and frames sold. It is increasingly important that the staff focus on this in the challenging economic environment.

ECP: What is the total number of jobs that Balester produces per day? Uncut vs. finished. 

DP: Our yearly average is 870 jobs per day and 52% are uncut.

ECP: What is your approximate turn around time? 

DP: Our uncuts average 2 days in-house including AR. 43% of our jobs receive AR currently. Cut and edged work averaged 3.7 days in-house last month.

ECP: What are some of the featured brands that Balester handles and is able to offer competitive pricing on? 

DP: We take pride in our ability to distribute the Varilux, Shamir, Zeiss, Hoya, Transitions, Kodak, Definity, NuPolar, Xperio etc. brands and value our vendor relationships as well. 

ECP: What new lab equipment and/or technology has been put in place in the past year or two to help improve the overall service offered to your customers? 

DP: We currently have our second robotic Schneider digital lens processing system coming in later this month and recently installed our first 5 axis robotic lens edger to improve our wraps, goggles and drilled work. We now have three robotic systems in both our surfacing and finishing departments improving our accuracy and turnaround time.

ECP: Please explain some of the advantages of dealing with Balester including in-office training provided by your ABO certified opticians? 

DP: I am ABO certified and require all the reps to perform online education until they are certified as well. It's an important part of our overall strategy to service our ECPs the best we can. If their practices are not healthy and thriving, we aren't healthy and thriving.

ECP: What do you think the ECP should be focused on going forward in this evolving industry? 

DP: The industry is changing in many ways. Technology is giving us the flexibility of customizing the lens to each patient, while frame brands offer an increasing variety of choices for consumers as well. ECPs will have to educate themselves and their staff to be able to properly explain, demonstrate and position these lens and frame technologies in their practices. I believe as the industry changes, the lab consultant will become more important, particularly on the lens side. Your lab rep should be able to offer much more than product. Benchmarking and staff training are as important as the products prescribed. A commitment from the lab to the ECP to help practice build as well as manufacturing the end pair of eyeglasses will be important to both the lab and ECP relationship. 

This relationship will also exist in an environment where third party insurance is involved with most eyewear purchased. The lab to ECP relationship will also require a general understanding of third party insurance and the ECP will need help evaluating which plans he or she should take or decline. The practice of accepting any insurance can be costly and harmful to the bottom line of the practice. All of the above constitutes practice management and the industry can't afford to neglect this area any longer. Our technologies are changing and so are the skills to deliver them to the patient. My advice to the ECP is to look for partners that will provide ongoing help in adapting to the ever changing optical landscape.

Dale Parmenteri is Vice-President and part owner of Balester Optical Company, in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Dale attended Wilkes University where he received his Bachelors Degree in Business Administration, minoring in Finance, Information Systems and Social Sciences. He began his career at Balester Optical in 1983 and is currently responsible for marketing and operations of the lab. Dale resides in the Wilkes-Barre area with his wife Ellen and son Matthew. He served on the OLA Board and Member Advisory Board for a total of 10 years and continues on the nominating committee. In addition, he continues as an active member of the Vision Council AR Committee developing curriculum for optometry students, eye care practitioners and promoting the advantages of no glare lenses to the consumer.

Paul DiGiovanni, LDO, is a practicing optician who resides in New Jersey. to be here for awhile.