Irvine’s Ophthalmic Instruments Inc., a family-owned distributor of medical devices, equipment and other supplies for eye exam rooms that had grown to be the largest business of its type on the West Coast, has a new owner.
The 42-year-old company was recently acquired by Norfolk, Va.-based Advancing Eyecare Holdings, a newly formed business backed by private equity investor Atlantic Street Capital in Connecticut.
Financial terms of the deal, which closed around the start of the month, were undisclosed.
Atlantic Street has been buying other related businesses since 2016, and started the Advancing Eyecare umbrella company around the start of the year.
It typically invests in middle-market companies with between $4 million and $15 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
The Business Journal in May estimated that Advancing Eyecare’s revenues were in the $100 million range; the newly created company—believed to be the largest distribution company in the ophthalmic market—was cited as a competitor of Ophthalmic Instruments during a profile of the Spectrum-area business as part of the paper’s Family-Owned Businesses annual Special Report.
Other companies under the Advancing Eyecare umbrella include Norfolk’s Lombart Instrument, another distributor of ophthalmic instruments to ophthalmologists and optometrists that started in 1979; and Marco Ophthalmic Inc., a high-tech instrumentation firm in Florida. It now has more than 400 employees.
Staying On
Ophthalmic Instruments is run by Chief Executive Scott Shone, the son of company founder Lou Shone, who retired two years ago.
A number of other family members work for the company, and nearly a quarter of the firm’s 33 employees count more than a decade’s experience at the company; all are staying onboard following the sale.
The company sells its products to customers including University of California-Irvine and other schools, businesses such as Allergan PLC and Kaiser Permanente, as well as independent ophthalmologists and optometrists.
It sells a variety of ophthalmic products, which come from makers including Topcon Corp., Haag-Streit Group, Marco Ophthalmic Inc., Reichert Inc., and about two dozen others.
Products range from microscopes, lensometers and ultrasound imaging devices to chairs, stools and a bulk of the supplies used at eyecare offices.
The company also repairs and maintains equipment. The Irvine operations are run out of a 10,000-square-foot headquarters at 1 Musick; the building also has administrative offices and includes a showroom, warehouse, shipping and logistics, and repair and maintenance space.
Customers get “a comprehensive line of quality ophthalmic products [and] a personal touch,” Scott Shone told the Business Journal earlier this year.
While not disclosing sales figures, Shone said in May that the company had grown an average of 20% a year since 1997; it has locations in California, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado, and field representatives in four additional states.
“I felt that we needed to get bigger and stronger in order to compete at a high level,” Shone said at the time the deal with Advancing Eyecare was announced.
“Even though we averaged double-digit growth rates over the last couple of years, I felt it wasn’t fast enough and we need to join forces with somebody.”
“Over the past 40 years, the Shone family has built [the company] into one of the leading and most respected providers of ophthalmic instruments on the West Coast and we are pleased to have them become a vital part of the Advancing Eyecare family of brands,” said Advancing Eyecare Chief Executive Brad Staley.
