Bausch & Lomb turns 150

Our Corporate Bureau
03 November 2003

Mumbai: One-hundred-and-fifty years to the day after its founding as a small optical shop in Rochester, New York, Bausch & Lomb, the global eye health company, today launched a year-long celebration of its 150 years in business by announcing two major initiatives and ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Founded in 1893 by German immigrants John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb, Bausch & Lomb''s heritage in vision care is second to none. What began as a small shop selling spectacles and magnifiers imported from Europe is today a global company with nearly $2 billion in sales, 11,500 employees and strong franchises in contact lenses and lens care products and ophthalmic surgical and pharmaceutical products.

In India, the company began its operations in 1992, taking credit for bringing in a revolution in eyecare. Over the past decade, Bausch & Lomb has demonstrated its innovative technology and know-how in eyecare by continuously bringing in revolutionary products in all three areas of eyecare that it operates in.

In vision care, the company has brought in breakthrough new-generation contact lenses such as Soflens Comfort, ReNu, Pure Vision and SL66 Torics. High-quality foldable intraocular lenses such as Akreos & Millenium Microsurgical System have spearheaded a similar revolution in cataract, while the state-of-the-art Zyoptix vision correction procedure has ushered in a new gold standard for surgical vision correction in the country.

Simultaneously, B&L''s ISO 9002 certified manufacturing facility is perhaps the most advanced eyecare products manufacturing unit anywhere in the country, with ReNu being manufactured under a Class 100 sterile facility and contact lenses by the spin casting process. Apart from this, it has also set up a Bausch & Lomb International School of Optometry in Hyderabad.