A Legacy Built On Care

The optical industry is rapidly evolving, and ABB Optical Group has been at the forefront of these changes for 35 years. The Profit Advisor talked with Angel Alvarez, the founder of ABB Optical Group, and President James Gilchrist to discuss the journey of ABB, their commitment to independent eye care professionals (IECPs) and their vision for the future.

The Beginnings

Q: Tell us how ABB Optical Group got started.

Angel Alvarez: “I was working for what was then Ciba Vision when the opportunity arose. The business landscape was shifting towards disposable contact lenses, and I saw independent doctors struggling with the logistics of this transition. They weren't equipped to handle the increased transaction volume. It was 400% to 800% more volume than what they had been doing. This, combined with the rise of mail order, made it challenging for them to remain competitive.

“My background in finance and my work at Florida Power and Light and Ciba helped me realize that these doctors needed more than just products; they needed a strategy. I had been running the kind of what-if scenarios— the sorts of reports that Excel does now—to help build business in territories. That's when I decided to start ABB to help doctors manage their practices better. “It was really a fundamental change. Until that time, IECPs felt like the only variable they could control was price. But we came in and helped them develop a strategy with a fee analysis plan. That became the start of The Profit Advisor and the Price Monitor. We would analyze our highest performing 500 practices and study what they were doing.”