Is there still a place for NZOWA?

August 22, 2022 Naomi Meltzer

The New Zealand Optical Wholesalers Association (NZOWA) includes around 30 independent wholesalers who supply everything our industry needs, from ophthalmic equipment and laboratory services to spectacle frames and contact lens products. When I think of NZOWA, I think of conferences and trade displays, of products and laboratories; it’s also a source of contacts to help me find what I need for my business and my patients, or solve a problem I might have. But that wasn’t always its role.

 

The association formed in the late 1950s to represent the optical industry and lobby the government to relax the strict import licence grants and remove duties and sales taxes imposed on all imported goods at that time. Few people remember these times, when anything purchased from overseas, such as a new car, required large amounts of foreign currency to pay for the goods in advance. Small sums could be purchased as a Money Order from the Post Office, but larger amounts were usually only available to the few export businesses who had import licences (some would say ‘a licence to print money’!) and whose goods were paid for in foreign currency. Buying and selling currency was a business in itself, and not always legal!

 

NZOWA successfully managed to get sight-testing instruments, some laboratory equipment and all lenses licensing- and duty-free. However, spectacle frames, sunglasses and some accessories remained under licence, so the purchase of instruments and equipment continued to be limited to the few who had import licences and the ability to purchase overseas funds. This situation lasted for more than 15 years, until plastic spectacle frame manufacturing in New Zealand ceased and import licences and duties were removed, all the while with NZOWA championing fairer trade and better competition in the optical industry.

 

A potted history

 

The original membership of the NZOWA was Arthur Cocks, Dominion Optical Supplies, Hannaford & Burton, J&B Optical, Morgan & Hall, NZ Optical, the Standard Optical Company of Australasia, and Wholesale Distributors.

 

Over the years, with NZOWA’s success in changing the licensing laws and taxes, the aims and objectives of NZOWA were adapted to better represent the collective interests of its members, and to cooperate with other optical interests within the wider community. The industry group even masterminded and funded a one-off radio and television campaign, entitled ‘Save our sight’, supported by inserts in The New Zealand Listener and pamphlets in schools, in the ’90s. “All the wholesale companies at that time paid for this promotion based on 1% of turnover for the month. It really bought home the aspect of glaucoma and sight loss if people weren't regularly having eye tests with their local optometrist,” said former NZOWA president Gary Edgar. However, given the expense, the promotion was fairly short-lived, he added.

 

By the early 2000s the original seven members had grown to 31 and their objectives had evolved to include organising an annual optical trade fair and conference, and cooperation with other organisations commissioning similar activities. That evolution stems from an era when most business was done on a handshake on the golf course or around the bar. So this turn of events (pun intended) was all about introducing more opportunities for networking, thanking clients for their support and encouraging them to increase their spend.

 

At the time, most optometrists were practice owners and held the all-important cheque book. Their practices were often in remote locations, where opportunities to view new products were limited; that meant working in a vacuum, managing a business without support from colleagues who understood their challenges or the ability to advance their professional skills. The new optical conferences and associated trade fairs addressed some of these frustrations by providing time to buy frame stock and equipment and make decisions about future investments. It also afforded opportunities for learning via formal lectures and informal chin-wagging. For many, it was also their only chance to socialise with colleagues, catch up with former classmates and take a well-earned break (or a tax-deductible family holiday). And, of course, what goes on at conference, stays at conference!

 

For the members of NZOWA, the benefits of accessing their customers away from the interruptions of practise and persuading them to unburden their bank accounts was obvious. Competition for sales orders was barely disguised.

 

The price of networking

 

However, such events are expensive to run. Those who provide the funding, usually well in advance of the event, need to more than recoup the outlay – all those games and prizes, dinners and parties have to be justified in sales. Since most New Zealand wholesalers have their head offices in Auckland or Wellington, moving equipment and stock displays around the country was costly and not always practical for a two- or three-day trade display accessible only to conference registrants. Other changes also begun to impact the viability of NZOWA trade shows, one example being the advent of the annual Optical Distributors & Manufacturers Association (ODMA) fair in Australia, especially given that in the past it was sometimes cheaper to fly to Sydney or Melbourne than fly domestically. More recently, the ratio of employed optometrists to practice owners has changed. Many independent practice owners now employ practice managers who often make the spending decisions.

 

However, as long as the Association of Dispensing Opticians of New Zealand (ADONZ) conference was combined with the New Zealand Association of Optometrists (NZAO) conference, the figures still stacked up and the NZOWA trade fair continued to flourish as part of these two events. But who was running the practice back home? The demise of this relationship was the beginning of the end for NZOWA’s biennial Visionz and Eduvisionz event, with the last one held in tandem with ADONZ at the Ellerslie Event Centre in October 2016.

 

The future of NZOWA

 

Although NZ Optics reported in November 2021 that NZOWA has been put into abeyance* while it considers its longer-term future, treasurer Rae Long said the association will continue to hold an AGM, albeit with diminished attendance compared with previous decades. Having staff off the road and taking time off in lieu of working weekends was another high cost to wholesalers, she said, while the huge workload for such a small group was another reason for the NZOWA committee taking a step back. There is some sadness for times past, she added, as the country’s wholesalers and optical community are such a nice bunch of people with similar interests. It’s a great industry to work in and still has that real family feel, however, said Long, who counts many of her long-term customers as friends these days, many of whom were hugely supportive when her husband died last year. There were so many text messages, she was quite “blown away”, she said.

 

 

NZOWA treasurer Rae Long with MSO’s Gethin Sladen at O=Mega19

 

 

Of all the members listed on NZOWA’s website, only two have an office address outside New Zealand. Most are small, local businesses or technician-owned laboratories that once serviced the country’s whole market, not multinationals. The question now is whether NZOWA is supporting us or do we, its customers, need to support it and our local suppliers?

 

If we lose that local support, we could lose a lot of local knowledge and personal help when we face issues with an essential piece of equipment or a lens prescription that is unique, specially worked and not an off-the-shelf commodity. This would then affect our business through a loss of productivity and the extra expenses we need to cover to source support from overseas. So, ultimately, it would be our patients who suffer if, without NZOWA local members’ support, we are forced into giving them a “no can do” attitude!

 

*www.nzoptics.co.nz/articles/archive/nzowa-opts-for-five-year-think

 

Naomi Meltzer has worked in optometry for more than 30 years and runs an independent practice in Auckland specialising in low-vision consultancy. She is a regular contributor to NZ Optics.