Optovista: ongoing innovation

Difficult but not disastrous. This is how Optovista president Paolo Pettazzoni sees the situation in the eyewear sector in the light of the global economic crisis.

Pettazzoni answered our questions during the last Mido, which was characterized by the concerns and hopes elicited by the current hard times the whole world is experiencing.
“In the Italian market for contact lenses”, Pettazzoni said, “the situation is difficult but it is not disastrous; we are fairly optimistic given that the feared collapse of the market did not in fact take place. Without doubt there has been a foreseeable contraction in demand, but it has not collapsed”.

So, the focus is on future projects. What does Optovista have in mind? “In the immediate term we will be on the defensive and see what the repercussions of the crisis will be. We will continue with our innovation programs and attention to product positioning”.

What new additions were presented at MIDO 2009? “There were numerous in the areas of progressive and anti-reflection lenses, which are stronger and have increased performance. We also presented a new procedure whereby our clients can connect to our IT System, which will also support opticians and allow them to contact us at any time”.

At the start of the exhibition, Pettazzoni said that he was pleased “to confirm last year’s figures in terms of attendance and interest” and also spoke about the age-old problem of using testimonials in promotional campaigns. “The lens”, he underscored, “is a very technical product so there are certain problems about explaining a product’s specific characteristics to the end-user. Associating such a technical product with a specific testimonial is not appropriate”.