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Eye Care Centers Of America, Inc. Business Information, Profile, and History

11103 West Avenue
San Antonio, Texas 78213
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

We offer our customers high-quality frames, lenses, accessories, and sunglasses--including designer and private label frames, at competitive prices. All of our stores offer lenses at great prices and the leading technology in vision correction. In addition, most of our stores provide one-hour service on most prescriptions by utilizing on-site laboratories.

History of Eye Care Centers Of America, Inc.

Eye Care Centers of America, Inc. is one of the largest optical retail chains in the United States. It operates or manages more than 375 retail stores in 32 states and the District of Columbia using 11 stores names, including EyeMasters, Visionworks, Vision World, Doctor's VisionWorks, Dr. Bizer's VisionWorld, Dr. Bizer's ValuVision, Doctor's ValuVision, Hour Eyes, Stein Optical, Eye DRx, and Binyon's. Each is a leader in eye care service in its respective market. Stores are located primarily in the Southwest, Midwest, and Southeast, along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coasts, and in the Pacific Northwest regions of the United States.

Growing to National Proportions: 1984-88

In 1984, an investment group headed by Robert Schumacher founded the San Antonio-based Eye Care Centers of America. By 1986, Eye Care Centers of America operated 13 optical department stores in Texas and Louisiana under the name EYE PRO Express, Jack V. Gunion serving as president and chief executive officer. After an initial public offering of 1.1 million shares mid-year, the company began trading as IPRO on the NASDAQ.

Proceeds from the sale of Eye Care Centers' stock went toward acquiring or opening additional stores, and in the early fall of 1986 Eye Care Centers purchased a second chain of stores, 20/20 Eye Care Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona. With the addition of 20/20 and the opening of several new EYE PRO stores, Eye Care Centers became a chain of close to 30 stores. When it acquired EyeMasters of Baton Rouge around the close of the year, the company's properties exceeded 40 stores located in Arizona, California, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas.

Then, in a turn of events, Eye Care Centers was itself purchased by Chicago-based Sears, Roebuck & Co. in late 1987 as part of the larger company's strategy of shoring up its mature merchandising operations by buying fast-growing specialty stores. At the time of the purchase, Sears already had optical departments in about 600 of its 813 department stores. Over objections and lawsuits filed by two of Eye Care Centers' stockholders, Sears bought the optical chain for $52.5 million. The company no longer traded publicly after the purchase.

In purchasing Eye Care Centers, Sears opted to take advantage of the move toward growth throughout the 1980s for optical superstores nationwide. In 1974, two rulings had led to significant change in the nation's eye care industry. In the first, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that professionals had the freedom to advertise their practices. In the second, the Federal Trade Commission stated that optometrists had to give patients copies of their eyeglass prescriptions, allowing patients the freedom to shop for frames wherever they chose. Coupled with a variety of new trends, such as advances in eyewear technology, the increased popularity of fashion eyeglass frames, and the fact that baby boomers were beginning to turn 40--the age at which many people began requiring glasses for reading and driving--the optical superstore was born. What once was a quasi-medical enterprise, the prescribing, grinding, and fitting of eyeglasses, became a service and product-oriented business almost overnight. The merchandising phenomenon went from ground zero at the start of the decade to become the fastest growing segment of the $8-billion-plus retail eye care industry by the late 1980s.

By 1988, Eye Care Centers, along with LensCrafters and Pearle Vision, had become one of the largest optical superchains in the nation. Each of its stores had up to three doctors working at any time, examination rooms, a frame selection area, and a lens grinding laboratory. While optical retail chains accounted for only about 19 percent of the market, which was still dominated by independent optometrists, they were becoming some of the most successful businesses in the country thanks to advertising via television, radio, newspaper, and direct mail; competitive service; and the convenience they offered. Their large selection of eyewear, merchandising specials, and the promise of new glasses without a long wait both shaped and catered to consumer demand.

By the late 1980s, a growing number of new optometrists were opting not to start their own private practice. A 1988 New Orleans City Business article cited Optical Index magazine's national statistics showing that the "'chain' segment of the eye care industry--optical centers with four or more retail locations--represent[ed] about 165 optical companies that operated a total of 6,250 outlets" and that these centers garnered "almost 30 cents out of every dollar spent in the industry." According to Optical Index, the eye care chains brought in a combined total of more than $2 billion in annual revenues.

The growth and convenience of the eye care business meant that people were going for eye exams and buying new glasses more frequently than in the past, predictors of better optical health nationwide. However, critics opined that the big business approach to optical care could mean that people would become less rather than more informed. "The public's concept of an eye examination has become so that it is like buying a pack of cigarettes--it's all the same regardless of who does it," voiced the president of the New Orleans Academy of Ophthalmology in the 1988 New Orleans CityBusiness article.

1988-97: Ongoing Growth Through Acquisitions

The debate about the relative benefits of the optical superchain did nothing to slow the growth of Eye Care Centers. By 1988, it had more than doubled its size since having been purchased by Sears. In 1988, 20/20 Eye Care Centers acquired five Phoenix-area optical stores from Eye Co., Inc. and another 20 stores from Binyon's of Portland, Oregon. This acquisition brought Eye Care Centers' total to 88 stores nationwide doing business under the names Eye Co., EyeMasters, EyePro Express, and 20/20 Eyecare. Late in the year, it decided to rebrand all of its stores under the EyeMasters name. Immediately following this decision, it began expansion plans to build another ten EyeMasters stores in the state of Texas.

Growth continued for the company throughout the 1990s. In 1993, Sears sold Eye Care Centers to Desai Capital Management and a group of the company's executives. By 1996, with

A year later, with revenues of $220 million and 243 optical stores in 21 states, the District of Columbia, and Mexico, Eye Care Centers acquired the Hour Eyes chain and relocated its distribution, equipment, repair, and some manufacturing operations to larger quarters to consolidate its facilities scattered around the San Antonio area and to accommodate its ongoing growth.

1998-2004: Future Growth Plans Based on a Strategic Market Focus

In 1998, Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Co. acquired about 90 percent of Eye Care Centers for $325 million. The money, which the company put toward expansion, provided "... the perfect opportunity to bring new capital into the company and position it for future growth, both through new store openings and through acquisitions," according to Bernie Andrews, Eye Care Center's chief executive officer, in a company release. Eye Care Centers used the money obtained through the sale to blanket the market with outlets: five new stores in Utah under the EyeMasters name in the first phase of expansion with more stores to follow. These stores followed the typical EyeMasters format; they were about 3,000 square feet, located in a retail strip center, open seven days a week, and had a complete lab and doctor on site as well as a staff of 15 to 20 people.

More acquisitions followed as Thomas H. Lee Co. moved to revamp Eye Care Centers as a value provider of eyewear. In 1998, the company bought Dr. Bizer's Vision World and in 1999 it purchased 76 VisionWorld, Stein Optical, and Eye DRx stores, most of them in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New Jersey. These acquisitions brought its total to 351 stores in 32 states. From 2000 to 2003, Eye Care Centers averaged ten new stores each year until in 2004 it had about 375 stores in more than 30 states selling under 11 brand names.

Revenues increased accordingly. In 1998, the company's sales totaled almost $238 million. In 2001, David E. McComas assumed the role of the company's chief executive, and by 2003, that number had reached $370 million. In 2004, it was approaching $400 million. In December 2004, a Hong Kong-based global leader in the manufacture, distribution, and retailing of eyewear, Moulin International Holdings Ltd., along with the San Francisco equity firm Golden Gate Capital, announced plans to purchase Eye Care Centers, and the company recommitted itself to its focus on the eyewear value segment. With nearly 88 percent of people over the age of 55 requiring some form of corrective eyewear and that segment of the population destined to grow, the company seemed well-positioned to maximize future growth.

Principal Competitors: 1-800 CONTACTS, Inc.; Costco Wholesale Corporation; Emerging Vision, Inc.; J.C. Penney Company, Inc.; LensCrafters, Inc.; National Vision, Inc.; OptiCareHealth Systems, Inc.; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; U.S. Vision, Inc.; Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Related information about Eye

A specialized receptor organ responding to light stimuli. Various forms exist, such as the stigmata of certain protozoa, the ocelli of annelids, and the compound eye of insects. In land-based vertebrates, such as humans, the eyeball is composed of two parts: the transparent corneal part at the front, and the opaque scleral part at the back. Three concentric coats form the wall of the eyeball: an outer fibrous coat, consisting of the cornea and sclera; a middle vascular coat, consisting of the choroid, ciliary body, and iris; and an inner nervous coat (the retina). The coats surround and partly divide the contents of the eyeball. The vitreous body (a jelly-like substance containing a meshwork of fine fibres) lies between the lens and the retina. The space between the lens and the cornea contains a watery fluid (the aqueous humour), and is further partly divided by the iris into front and rear chambers. The lens is transparent and biconvex, lying between the iris and the vitreous body; changes in its convexity alter its focal length (the greater the convexity, the shorter the focal length), and are brought about by the action of the ciliary muscles. The lens is soft and elastic in the fetus, but becomes hardened and flatter with increasing age, making focusing on close objects more difficult (presbyopia); it may also become opaque in the elderly (cataract). Light entering the eye is refracted by the cornea, and passes through the lens, which focuses it to form an inverted image on the retina. This image is coded by the retina and sent to the visual areas of the cerebral cortex for interpretation, thus enabling the original pattern of light stimuli to be ‘seen’. The amount of light entering the eye is determined by the size of the pupil, which in turn is determined by the degree of contraction of the iris. If the image from distant objects is focused in front of the retina, the condition is known as myopia, with vision being better for near objects (‘short-sightedness’). If the image is focused beyond the retina, the condition is known as hypermetropia, with vision being better for distant objects (‘long-sightedness’). Glasses using concave lenses are used to correct short sight; a convex lens is used for long sight.

An eye is an organ of vision that detects light. Different kinds of light-sensitive organs are found in a variety of organisms. The simplest eyes do nothing but detect whether the surroundings are light or dark, while more complex eyes can distinguish shapes and colors. Many animals, including some mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, have two eyes which may be placed on the same plane to be interpreted as a single three-dimensional "image" (binocular vision), as in humans; or on different planes producing two separate "images" (monocular vision), such as in rabbits and chameleons.

Varieties of eyes

In most vertebrates and some mollusks, the eye works by allowing light to enter it and project onto a light-sensitive panel of cells known as the retina at the rear of the eye, where the light is detected and converted into electrical signals, which are then transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. Such eyes are typically roughly spherical, filled with a transparent gel-like substance called the vitreous humour, with a focusing lens and often an iris which regulates the intensity of the light that enters the eye. The eyes of cephalopods, fish, amphibians, and snakes usually have fixed lens shapes, and focusing vision is achieved by telescoping the lens—similar to how a camera focuses.

Compound eyes are found among the arthropods and are composed of many simple facets which give a pixelated image (not multiple images, as is often believed). Some arthropods, including many Strepsiptera, have compound eye composed of a few facets each, with a retina capable of creating an image, which does provide multiple-image vision.

Trilobites, which are now extinct, had unique compound eyes. They used clear calcite crystals to form the lenses of their eyes. The number of lenses in such an eye varied, however: some trilobites had only one, and some had thousands of lenses in one eye.

Some of the simplest eyes, called ocelli, can be found in animals like snails, who cannot actually "see" in the normal sense. They do have photosensitive cells, but no lens and no other means of projecting an image onto these cells. Some insect larvae, like caterpillars, have a different type of single eye (stemmata) which gives a rough image.

Evolution of eyes

The common origin (monophyly) of all animal eyes is now widely accepted as fact based on shared anatomical and genetic features of all eyes; For example, birds of prey have much greater visual acuity than humans, and some can see ultraviolet light. The different forms of eyes in, for example, vertebrates and mollusks are often cited as examples of parallel evolution, despite their distant common ancestry.

The earliest eyes, called "eyespots", were simple patches of photoreceptor cells, physically similar to the receptor patches for taste and smell. The pit deepened over time, the opening diminished in size, and the number of photoreceptor cells increased, forming an effective pinhole camera that was capable of slightly distinguishing dim shapes.Eye-Evolution?

The thin overgrowth of transparent cells over the eye's aperture, originally formed to prevent damage to the eyespot, allowed the segregated contents of the eye chamber to specialize into a transparent humour that optimized colour filtering, blocked harmful radiation, improved the eye's refractive index, and allowed functionality outside of water. The transparent protective cells eventually split into two layers, with circulatory fluid in between that allowed wider viewing angles and greater imaging resolution, and the thickness of the transparent layer gradually increased, in most species with the transparent crystallin protein.Fernald, Russell D. The Evolution of Eyes: Where Do Lenses Come From? Karger Gazette 64: "The Eye in Focus".

The gap between tissue layers naturally formed a bioconvex shape, an ideal structure for a normal refractive index. Independently, a transparent layer and a nontransparent layer split forward from the lens: the cornea and iris. Separation of the forward layer again forms a humour, the aqueous humour. Formation of a nontransparent ring allows more blood vessels, more circulation, and larger eye sizes.

Anatomy of the mammalian eye

The mammalian eye can be divided into two main segments: the anterior segment and the posterior segment.www.e-sunbear.com/anatomy_02.html

Anterior segment

The anterior segment is the front third of the eye that includes the structures in front of the vitreous humour: the cornea, iris, ciliary body, and lens.Cassin, B. Anterior segment."
Cantabrian Institute of Ophthalmology. Within the anterior segment are two fluid-filled spaces: the anterior chamber and the posterior chamber. The anterior chamber between the posterior surface of the cornea (i.e. the corneal endothelium) and the iris. The posterior chamber between the iris and the front face of the vitreous.

Posterior segment

The posterior segment is the back two-thirds of the eye that includes the anterior hyaloid membrane and all structures behind it: the vitreous humor, retina, choroid, and optic nerve.Posterior segment anatomy
In some animals, the retina contains a reflective layer (the tapetum lucidum) which increases the amount of light each photosensitive cell perceives, allowing the animal to see better under low light conditions.

The structure of the mammalian eye owes itself completely to the task of focusing light onto the retina. The cornea and lens help to converge light rays to focus onto the retina. This light causes chemical changes in the photosensitive cells of the retina, the products of which trigger nerve impulses which travel to the brain.

Light enters the eye from an external medium such as air or water, passes through the cornea, and into the first of two humours, the aqueous humour. The first humour is a clear mass which connects the cornea with the lens of the eye, helps maintain the convex shape of the cornea (necessary to the convergence of light at the lens) and provides the corneal endothelium with nutrients. The iris, between the lens and the first humour, is a coloured ring of muscle fibres. Light must first pass though the centre of the iris, the pupil. The lens, behind the iris, is a convex, springy disk which focuses light, through the second humour, onto the retina.

To clearly see an object far away, the circularly arranged ciliary muscles will pull on the lens, flattening it. Without muscles pulling on it, the lens will spring back into a thicker, more convex, form.
Humans gradually lose this flexibility with age, resulting in the inability to focus on nearby objects, which is known as presbyopia. There are other refraction errors arising from the shape of the cornea and lens, and from the length of the eyeball. These include myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism.

On the other side of the lens is the second humour, the vitreous humour, which is bounded on all sides: by the lens, ciliary body, suspensory ligaments and by the retina. The outermost is the sclera which gives the eye most of its white colour. It consists of dense connective tissue filled with the protein collagen to both protect the inner components of the eye and maintain its shape. On the inner side of the sclera is the choroid, which contains blood vessels that supply the retinal cells with necessary oxygen and remove the waste products of respiration. The inner most layer of the eye is the retina, containing the photosensitive rod and cone cells, and neurons.

To maximise vision and light absorption, the retina is a relatively smooth (but curved) layer. the fovea and optic disc. It is largely responsible for color vision in humans, and enables high acuity, such as is necessary in reading. The optic disc, sometimes referred to as the anatomical blind spot, is a point on the retina where the optic nerve pierces the retina to connect to the nerve cells on its inside.

Cytology

The retina contains two forms of photosensitive cells - rods and cones. However, they do not distinguish between colours, and have low visual acuity (a measure of detail). Different cone cells respond to different colours (wavelengths) of light, which allows an organism to see colour.

The differences are useful; Its requirement for high intensity light does cause problems for astronomers, as they cannot see dim stars, or other objects, using central vision because the light from these is not enough to stimulate cone cells. Because cone cells are all that exist directly in the fovea, astronomers have to look at stars through the "corner of their eyes" (averted vision) where rods also exist, and where the light is sufficient to stimulate cells, allowing the individual to observe distant stars.

Rods and cones are both photosensitive, but respond differently to different frequencies of light. They both contain different pigmented photoreceptor proteins. Rod cells contain the protein rhodopsin and cone cells contain different proteins for each colour-range. The process through which these proteins go is quite similar - upon being subjected to electromagnetic radiation of a particular wavelength and intensity (ie. Rhodopsin, of rods, breaks down into opsin and retinal; iodopsin of cones breaks down into photopsin and retinal. The opsin in both opens ion channels on the cell membrane which leads to the generation of an action potential (an impulse which will eventually get to the visual cortex in the brain).

This is the reason why cones and rods enable organisms to see in dark and light conditions - each of the photoreceptor proteins requires a different light intensity to break down into the constituent products. Further, synaptic convergence means that several rod cells are connected to a single bipolar cell, which then connects to a single ganglion cell and information is relayed to the visual cortex. Because several "converge" onto a bipolar cell, enough transmitter molecules reach the synapse of the bipolar cell to attain the threshold level to generate an action potential.

Furthermore, colour is distinguishable when breaking down the iodopsin of cone cells because there are three forms of this protein. In simple terms, this allows human beings to see red, green and blue light. If, for example, the red and green cones are stimulated to the same extent, and no blue cones are stimulated, yellow is seen. For this reason red, green and blue are called primary colours and the colours obtained by mixing two of them, secondary colours. The secondary colours can be further complimented with primary colours to see tertiary colours.

Acuity

Visual acuity can be measured with several different metrics.

Cycles per degree (CPD) measures how much an eye can differentiate one object from another in terms of degree angles. It is essentially no different from angular resolution. A horse can resolve about 17 CPD (0.66 mm at 1 m) and a rat can resolve about 1 CPD (8.7 mm at 1 m).

A diopter is the unit of measure of focus.

Dynamic range

At any given instant, the retina can resolve a contrast ratio of around 100:1 (about 6 1/2 stops). full adaptation through adjustments in retinal chemistry (the Purkinje effect) are mostly complete in thirty minutes. Hence, over time, a contrast ratio of about 1,000,000:1 (about 20 stops) can be resolved.

Adnexa and related parts

The orbit

In many species, the eyes are inset in the portion of the skull known as the orbits or eyesockets.

Eyebrows

In humans, the eyebrows redirect flowing substances (such as rainwater or sweat) away from the eye. It can also wash away the tear fluid - along with it the protective lipid layer - and can alter corneal physiology, due to osmotic differences between tear fluid and freshwater. This is made apparent when swimming in freshwater pools, as the osmotic gradient draws 'pool water' into the corneal tissue, causing edema, and subsequently leaving the swimmer with "cloudy" or "misty" vision for a short period thereafter. It can be reversed by irrigating the eye with hypertonic saline.

Eyelids

In many animals, including humans, eyelids wipe the eye and prevent dehydration. They spread tear fluid on the eyes, which contains substances which help fight bacterial infection as part of the immune system.
Some aquatic animals have a second eyelid in each eye which refracts the light and helps them see clearly both above and below water. Most creatures will automatically react to a threat to its eyes (such as an object moving straight at the eye, or a bright light) by covering the eyes, and/or by turning the eyes away from the threat. Blinking the eyes is, of course, also a reflex.

Eyelashes

In many animals, including humans, eyelashes prevent fine particles from entering the eye.

How we see an object

The steps of how we see an object:

The light rays enter the eye through the cornea (transparent front portion of eye to focus the light rays)
Then, light rays move through the pupil, which is surrounded by Iris to keep out extra light
Then, light rays move through the crystalline lens (Clear lens to further focus the light rays )
Then, light rays move through the vitreous humor (clear jelly like substance)
Then, light rays fall on the retina, which processes and converts incident light to neuron signals using special pigments in rod and cone cells.
These neuron signals are transmitted through the optic nerve,
Then, the neuron signals move through the visual pathway - Optic nerve > Optic Chiasm > Optic Tract > Optic Radiations > Cortex
Then, the neuron signals reach the occipital (visual) cortex and its radiations for the brain's processing.
The visual cortex interprets the signals as images and along with other parts of the brain, interpret the images to extract form, meaning, memory and context of the images.

Color vision

What is seen as color is essentially different combinations of certain ranges of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Of course, some people lack the ability to see some or all of the colour spectrum: they are referred to as being 'color blind'.

Extraocular muscles

Each eye has six muscles that control its movements: the lateral rectus, the medial rectus, the inferior rectus, the superior rectus, the inferior oblique, and the superior oblique.

Rapid eye movement

Rapid eye movement typically refers to the stage during sleep during which the most vivid dreams occur. The eyes are automatically rotated to remain fixed on the object, directed by input from the organs of balance near the ears. This is less accurate than the vestibulo-ocular reflex as it requires the brain to process incoming visual information and supply feedback. The smooth pursuit movement can move the eye at up to 100°/s in adult humans.

While still, the eye can measure relative speed with high accuracy, however under movement relative speed is highly distorted. However, if an observer watches the plane while moving in the opposite direction from the plane's movement, the plane will appear as if were standing still or moving very slowly.

When an observer views an object in motion moving away or towards himself, there is no eye movement occurring as in the examples above, however the ability to discern speed and speed difference is still present; To look at an object closer by, the eyes rotate 'towards each other' (convergence), while for an object farther away they rotate 'away from each other' (divergence). Exaggerated convergence is called cross eyed viewing (focussing on the nose for example) . While there are many changes of significance in the nondiseased eye, the most functionally important changes seem to be a reduction in pupil size and the loss of accommodation or focusing capability (presbyopia). These changes contribute to the etiology of several eyelid disorders such as ectropion, entropion, dermatochalasis, and ptosis. The vitreous gel undergoes liquefaction (posterior vitreous detachment or PVD) and its opacities - visible as floaters - gradually increase in number.

Various eye care professionals, including ophthalmologists, optometrists, and opticians, are involved in the treatment and management of ocular and vision disorders. A Snellen chart is one type of eye chart used to measure visual acuity. At the conclusion of an eye examination, an eye doctor may provide the patient with an eyeglass prescription for corrective lenses.

References

Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Jessell TM. the WikiSaurus list of synonyms and slang words for eyes in many languages
Adaptation
Evil eye
Eye color
Eye contact
Eye tracking
Macropsia
Micropsia
Ocular tremor
Persistence of vision
Phosphenes
Staring contest
Tears
Visual perception
Parietal eye —

Chronology

Key Dates:
1984: Eye Care Centers of America (ECCA) is founded in San Antonio, Texas.
1986: The company holds an initial public offering (IPO); acquires 20/20 Eye Care Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona, and EyeMasters of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1987: Sears, Roebuck & Co. purchases Eye Care Centers.
1988: ECCA purchases Eye Co., Inc.; rebrands its stores under the EyeMasters brand.
1993: Desai Capital Management and ECCA executives buy the company from Sears.
1996: The company acquires Visionworks.
1997: The company acquires Hour Eyes.
1998: The company acquires Dr. Bizer's Vision World; Thomas H. Lee Company buys out Desai.
1999: The company acquires World Vision, Stein Optical, and Eye DRx.
2001: David E. McComas becomes chief executive officer.
2004: The company announces its acquisition by Moulin International Holdings Ltd. and Golden Gate Capital.

Additional topics

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