Essilor opens new production facility in Laos
Essilor opens new production facility in Laos
Essilor has inaugurated its new production unit in Savannakhet province, Laos.
This facility is part of the group's strategy to leverage its industrial capability to meet the visual needs of people in every part of the world.
The Lao plant will contribute to the group's planned growth by accelerating its ability to meet increasing demand from middle class consumers, especially in emerging markets.
The new factory will be dedicated to producing finished polycarbonate lenses for which consumer demand is increasing by 4-5 percent per year. In its first operation phase, the plant will employ 250 people. It will produce 20 million lenses per year when at full capacity, enabling the group to provide competitive polycarbonate products to major customers.
Essilor operates more than 450 prescription laboratories and production plants across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and America.
“Our global industrial network is key to supporting the development of the group. It connects our production plants with distribution centres and more than 450 prescription laboratories around the world to serve eye care professionals and consumers.
“Thanks to our new plant in Laos we will continue to strengthen our global offering of visual health solutions that help improve lives by improving sight,” commented Paul du Saillant, Chief Operating Officer.
Leveraging Essilor's long-standing expertise in South East Asia, the plant in Laos benefits from synergies with Essilor's production facility in Bangkok, Thailand, an industrial reference for polycarbonate production since 2000, where the teams from Laos have been trained.
The facility, representing a US$14 million initial investment, has been created on a 60,000 square metre site in the Savan Seno Special Economic Zone which offers significant logistical advantages due to efficient road and air transportation.
The project involves people development as much as industrial development. Essilor has established a vocational Training Centre in Savannakhet province which aims to help local workers develop skills appropriate to new industrial needs.
With an ongoing commitment to socially responsible development, Essilor has a unique transversal approach to sustainability and social responsibility that places the company's mission to improve lives by improving sight at the heart of its strategy and day-to-day operations.
Essilor has provided free eyeglasses to over 30,000 people in South-East Asia over the past 10 years thanks to its charity initiatives. In Laos, the company offered eyeglasses during a two-week field initiative led by the Vientiane Ophthalmology Centre and Essilor has been extending its social impact in the Savannakhet area by offering eye screenings to the local community and to Essilor employees and their families.
By 2020, 5 billion people will need visual correction. Left uncorrected, visual impairment affects individuals, their families and communities and national economies alike. As the Vision Impact Institute highlights, the global cost of productivity lost because of visual impairment is US$275 billion per year, almost half of which is in the Western Pacific Region, including China.
The world's leading optics company, Essilor designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of lenses to improve and protect eyesight. Its corporate mission is to improve lives by improving sight.
vientiane times
