Substances found in green tea work their way into the tissues of the eye and could protect against common eye diseases like glaucoma, researchers say.
The findings, published in the current issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, suggest that the substances, known as catechins, are absorbed by the lens, retina and other parts of the eye. Catechins are antioxidants thought to protect the body against damage from oxygen. According to Chi Pui Pang and colleagues from the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, it wasn’t known if catechins make their way from the mouth to the gastrointestinal system to the eyes. The study authors gave green tea to rats and then tested their eyes to see if catechins affected them. They did, reducing oxidative stress in the eye for up to 20 hours.

“Our results indicate that green tea consumption could benefit the eye against oxidative stress,” the authors said. This study was originally published in Healthday.com

Retail Shop wuld be empty without them. Customers would have limited options if they prefer to absent. The optical industry in the region will collapse if they go on strike. Indeed, their existence in the whole supply chain of optical goods in the Middle East is one vital and crucial role. Without them, the whole industry will collapse. And, who are they? They are simply the retailers’ distributors – the companies that make it possible for shops to sell diverse selections of optical goods; the companies who have to ensure that the end customers will get the highest quality products as possible; and, the companies that ascertain the cycle and growth of optical business on this part of the globe.

In this issue, EyeZone takes the rare opportunity of getting to know more about Optitalia Safilo Group, Eye Fashion and Transitions Optical – some of the region’s key distributors – and asks them about their work behind the spotlighted retail scene. These distribution companies follow different models, and are driven by different goals. But they show similar passion and commitment in delivering quality products and quality relationships.

The bridge to brands
Optical fashion market will not be as sparkly, trendy and chic if not for the Optitalia Safilo Group. The Safilo Group is worldwide leader in the premium eyewear sector and maintains a leadership position in the prescription, sunglasses, fashion and sports eyewear sectors. Present in the international market through exclusive distributors and 39 subsidiaries in the primary markets (USA, Europe and Far East). The main proprietary branded collections distributed are Safilo, Carrera, Smith, Oxydo and Blue Bay while the licensed branded collections include Alexander Mc- Queen, A/X Armani Exchange, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, BOSS by Hugo Boss, Jimmy Choo, Juicy Couture, Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Max Mara, Max & Co., Pierre Cardin, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent.

Known for its ability to supply the required demand for latest models of fashionable eyewear, the company has grown its business over the years of its presence in the GCC. According to the remarks of Mr. Carlo Lorigiola, General Manager of Safilo, the company’s growth is happening because of two reasons: the market was and still is developing and the company in itself continues to improve. The retail developments in the region, especially the onset of the big shopping malls in Dubai, spice up the market. Despite the global economic bubble, new shops are opening in the region from time to time thus experiencing the demand boost.

Also, people here in the region have been very conscious about brands and fashion. In such a short span, Dubai is becoming a fashionable shopping destination. The quality of shops and buys in the emirates are at par with the products one may find in the USA or Europe. The change has been driving the distribution to fantastic changes.

On the other hand, discussing about the company’s main distribution process, the products they sell to the retail shops are apparently not stocked in Dubai, based on Mr. Lorigiola’s comments. In every week that the company receives the requirements from its clients then it would request for the inventory of the products that are stored in Italy. Similar distribution system is applied to Safilo’s offices in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. Through this process, Safilo is being able to provide its clients the ability to maintain a minimum inventory and maximizing the rotation of such inventory of products. The company understands the changing needs of a fashionable market thus it allows its clients to keep up with that pace by managing its stocks on a low level.

Safilo also allows its clients (opticians, retail shop owners) to learn more about the existing brands that the company distributes. The company advises its clients as to the statistics of the products, brands and models. But, the final decision if the piece is to be sold or not is left upon the opticians or retail shop owners. It has to be noted, though, that the end buyers who ultimately use the product enlighten the distributors, retail owners and opticians about the popular brands that sell. To Safilo’s delight, the global awareness about the brands is translated into sales in this region.

It further has to be noted that Safilo works best in its ability to take care of its brands and its capacity to formulate long term relationships with its clients. In spite of the many options to distribute to the numerous shops from huge malls, shopping centers and even small shops around the corners, Safilo caters to its clients as regular affiliates and ensures that its distribution of quality and highly fashionable products are met.

Yet despite the system and growth of the company, Safilo suffers from several challenges in dealing with the optical industry. One problem it faces is the existence of counterfeit goods. Up to this time, people buy fake items because they do not understand the value behind the brand and the products. However, Safilo gets hit when people think that they are buying the original instead of the fake ones just because shops put on the duplicates on their shelves. This problem actually happens on the outskirts and very small shopping centers. When this occurs, Safilo discusses with the mall management its problem of maintaining its reputation and asks for the shop owners to refrain from selling counterfeit items.

Another problem that Safilo commonly encounters is the differences in retail pricing. The company has tried so many times to unify the opticians and retail owners by coming up with standard pricing but still the problem prevails. There were times in the past when the company had to enforce corrective actions against the retailers who would put unreasonable discounts. Since the company does not want to appear unfair and prejudice, there were times that Safilo lost business because of its adamant interest of retaining standard pricing in the market. They would prefer to be respected and hold high on their good reputation instead of just earning sales. As Mr. Lorigiola summed up that in the end it even worked for them. Safilo does not only gain new businesses but also gains tremendous respect from the industry.

Young but promising
In September 2008, Eye Fashion was established in partnership with Luc Margaritora de Barnier CEO for Near East, Middle East and Far East of Grosfilley, the distributors of Azzaro, Charriol, X one and other renowned brands. Though quite relatively new in the business, Eye Fashion has already gained recognition being a reputable distributor of world famous brands of frames and sunglasses.

According to Mr. Rafi of Eye Fashion, the company’s main responsibility is to provide the highest quality of service to the end users. That is why Eye Fashion takes good caution in its relationships not only with the opticians and retail shop owners but also the impact of its products and most especially its services to the customers.

Service is the key factor of the growth of Eye Fashion. The product lines it distributes carry the rare opportunity of having service warranty of one year to three years. The warranty Eye Fashion provides includes giving temples, temple tips, special screws and nose pads that are free of cost to the end user. These are given instantly to the customers – Eye Fashion promises that it services without any delays. As compared to its close competitors, customers have to wait two to three months of servicing similar product lines. Such excellence in quality customer service puts Eye Fashion into a remarkable place in the market. Eye Fashion’s outstanding service system has been the topic of the customers especially during the trade shows. Mr. Rafi declared that in every important trade show and exhibition event that they participated in, walk-in customers’ word of mouth would be about praises on the company’s customer service system. These incidents therefore helped in boosting the number of Eye Fashion clients and increasing its point of sales every month.

Although Eye Fashion is incurring good amount of sales from its products and outstanding service quality, still it encounters challenges in managing its operations. One common difficulty that the company hopes to handle very well is the accounting of its receivables. What the company tries to face is the timely collection of the receivable payments that actually slowed down because of the economic downturn.

As of now, the company looks at entering with one product line as it short term goal. Also, the company would like to translate all its efforts from distributing diverse optical product lines to providing unmatched services thus earning notable customer satisfaction. Eye Fashion is indeed a distribution company of optical goods that put greater importance to the endconsumers’ needs.

It may be new and young to an industry that has been developing in the region for years but Eye Fashion pledges its capacity to turn a strong business sense that will delight the optical market. It also assures that customers need to wait and watch in a while because it is coming out with really big surprises in the recent months to come.

Seeing through strong, global lenses

Transitions Optical, headquartered in Florida (USA), is formed as an independent joint venture company between PPG Industries and Essilor International to manufacture and market plastic photochromic eyeglass lenses. From its inception in 1990, the company and its branded Transitions lenses have grown tremendously. Now present in 38 countries, and lenses sold in more than 75 countries, the company is unstoppable in producing the lenses in its manufacturing sites in Asia, Europe, South America and the US. In Europe, Middle East and Africa alone, the company has recorded 11% growth rate from 2003 to 2008..

A recognized global leader in its field, Transitions Optical is the number one recommended photochromic lenses in the world. Its mission is to establish Transitions lenses as a leading eyewear choice for healthy sight providing convenient protection, visual quality and visual comfort. The company embarks on its operations by maintaining great relationships with its lens manufacturers, its trade efforts in selling the lenses, and its consumer demand campaigns. Transitions Optical certainly capitalize on the product, its brand and distribution strengths while developing leading technologies that align with material and design development..

The accomplishment of Transitions Optical is definitely attributable on its pertinent and clear distribution chain. Manufacturers go over its function of ensuring quality products to be sold to market. These would go to wholesale labs and then would be passed on to the opticians, retail shop owners, mass merchandisers, and even to private practitioners. According to Walid Elali, Business Director of Transitions Optical in the Middle East, the strong relationship and long-term working affiliation that the company and its renowned brand have with its retail customers are the reason for its successful operations. In the region, Transitions lenses are usually found at Magrabi Optical, Al Jaber Optical, Barakat Optical, Dubai Optical, Al Jamil Optical, Yateem Optician, Kefan, Hassan’s Optical, Optikos Shami and Grand Optics, to name a few of its loyal retail customers.

Reinforcing sales of the Transitions lenses is one of the main challenges of being in the distribution business. Because retail shops have huge selections of products to sell, there are times when the sales of Transitions lenses would need a push. Despite of maintaining close relationships with the opticians and retail shop owners, Transitions Optical also provide trainings and workshops that would allow these retailers to enhance their professional skills, re-learn the product and be motivated in selling..

Being a market leader in the world, Transitions Optical serves immense inspiration to other companies which key function is distribution. Aside from manufacturing quality lenses, the company has proven its capacity to deliver and manage its operations – an aspiring quality to existing and potential players in the industry.

Research may advance development of facial rec- ognition systems, study authors suggest .
Bees can learn to recognize human faces, as long as they think the faces are odd-shaped flowers, a new study reports. In a series of experiments, researchers from Australia and France determined that bees could be trained to recognize face-like patterns when they were reward- ed with a sweet treat for doing so.

However, this doesn’t mean that bees can learn to recognize individual human faces. Instead, the bees are able to learn the relative arrangements of features that create a face-like pattern, the study authors explained. Bees may use this same strategy to learn about and recognize different objects in their environment.

The study findings are published in the Jan. 29 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology.

It’s amazing that the microdot-sized brain of a bee can achieve this type of image analysis, said the researchers, who noted that humans have entire regions of the brain dedicated to this task. The bees’ approach to face recognition may prove useful in the development of facial recognition systems, the study authors suggested. This study was originally published in Healthday.com