Well, 2024 certainly has been a year for the history books here at IcareLabs. We had plenty of ups and a few big downs, as I'm sure most of you can relate to (specifically if you live here in Florida). All in all, this was definitely a year to remember, and I'm so glad that I've been able to share it all with my Icare family.
The Good
2024 brought us all some amazing new products, like the launch of Transitions Gen S, and Heritage Relief SV lenses, Heritage Sport & Driver lenses. We also got certified to process poly safety jobs in-house so we can give you better turn times.
We also partnered with our friends at Eye Q Eyewear to support National Reading Month by donating a portion of our sales to a local charity involved in helping kids learn to read. One of my favorite account managers and our Project Coordinator also helped Eye Q Eyewear dispense glasses to underserved children at a local YMCA free of charge. I love it when we are able to give back to our community with the gift of sight.
In March, we were honored to be named as one of Tampa Bay's Best Places to Work for 2024. I'd act surprised, but I get to see what our team is capable of every single day. It never ceases to amaze me how well we perform and how far we'll go to take care of each other. First, we celebrated with the team at Raymond James Stadium (Go Bucs!) with the whole team. In honor of this achievement, we also took the entire team on a catered dinner cruise for a magical evening off the coast of Florida.
In June, we celebrated Icare's 56th anniversary. Then in July, along with spring showers, we were blessed to be able to install a brand new MEI Racer 4Swift edger that was shipped to us from Italy. Over one weekend, our operations and maintenance teams were able to successfully renovate 1/4 of our lab for this install with almost no disruption to jobs that week! To say I was impressed is an understatement. Now, our Finishing Department is running better than ever before.
We were also honored to celebrate Patty's 50th workiversary here at the lab in September. It's truly humbling to have amazing team members stay with us for so long. Even if we were able to accomplish only one or two of the things listed above, I would consider the year a success. So to have all of those things happen over the course of the year, it truly has brought me a new appreciation for just how phenomenal our team here is, and I am humbled to be able to serve as their leader. On a personal note, I also celebrated my 40th birthday this year and was blown away by all the love my Icare family showed me here at the lab!
The Bad
As we all know, life happens and we're all just along for the ride. Even with all the amazing things listed above, we still had our share of ups and downs. A few times this year we had our spoilage numbers creep up in our Surfacing, Finishing, and AR departments (thankfully never all of them at the same time). While we catch 98% of these types of issues before shipping, a bad job here and there did get out. We appreciate all of you who called to let us know that, at the end of the day, we are just humans working with machines. Things will always ebb and flow. Machines do break and/or need constant upkeep to provide quality work.
Our customers are on the front lines and play a crucial part in helping us identify the areas we need to improve in. The economy was not kind to the optical industry overall in 2024. I know that many of you experienced lowers sales than we all hoped the year would bring. Thankfully, whatever the underlying issue is that caused it will hopefully have subsided as the numbers are already looking much better as we head into 2025.
The Ugly
Having lived in Florida my entire life, I've just come to accept hurricanes as part of the trade-off for living in a tropical paradise. Historically, the Tampa Bay area has been very blessed to not have received a direct hit in numerous decades, but as most of you know, this year we experienced devastation from back-to-back hurricanes. Hurricanes Helene & Milton hit the west coast of Florida particularly hard. Pinellas County and my hometown of Treasure Island saw devastating storm surges and winds. The picture you see to the right is outside of my neighbor's home during the several feet of storm surge brought by Helene. I guess you can say that we have now seen fire and rain.
Some employees shared with me heartbreaking stories of having lost everything due to these storms. One of our lab team members had to break their window to swim away with their dog and almost nothing else to escape the storm surge. I can't begin to explain the relief I felt after we were able to account for all of the Icare Family. The fact that nobody here was seriously injured or killed was not lost on any of us after having lived through those events.
Afterward, we picked up the pieces of our lives and we did what we do best; we persevered. After a few days without power here at the lab (the longest downtime in IcareLabs history), our operations & maintenance teams were able to find enough generators and extension cables to run power for a skeleton crew to get jobs moving again. Thankfully, full power was restored shortly after so we were able to return to work in full force. Through it all, the executive management team made sure that the entire Icare Family was paid for this unforeseen time off. We can't make quality lenses for our customers if the team is worrying about having to pay their bills and expenses for things out of their control.
I was proud to see how we rallied together to not only support each other through this time, but to also see the dedication we have to getting the lab back to 100% to ensure patients were able to get their glasses in a relatively timely manner.
A Fond Farewell
As many of you know, my cousin Tyler Payne was not only the Executive Vice President of Administration here at IcareLabs; he also served our community as the Mayor of Treasure Island. He had to make the tough decision to resign after the devastation to his home caused by the hurricanes. He also announced that as of December, he will be stepping down from his role here at Icare to join his father and brothers with their new family business.
I can't express the gratitude and admiration I have for him and all that he was able to help us accomplish over the past several years. His advice, input, and knowledge have been a crucial part of why the 3rd generation of leadership was able to continue the work my grandfather started back in 1968. As sad as I am to see him leave and start the next chapter of his career, I couldn't be prouder of his choice to bring his skills to Troy, Jacob, and Skip's newest business venture. I wish him nothing but the best and something tells me we will still see him around the lab from time to time (and most certainly around the dinner table too).
Goodbye 2024 and Hello to 2025
Suffice to say, 2024 has been quite the ride for all of us here at IcareLabs. I want to thank all of our customers from the bottom of my heart for sticking with us through the ups and downs this year has brought us. I'm looking forward to 2025 and our plans for new equipment and strategies to help us be better than we have ever been before. We are already hard at work upgrading our AR lab to process Shamir Glacier Plus in-house.
For our loyal customers, we are committed to making the New Year the best one yet. What does this mean for you? This means that my brother James & I are more willing than ever to find unique solutions tailored to your account and product mix to help you sell more while increasing your profit margins. Feel free to discuss your needs with your account manager or sales rep to help us find the best path to making that happen for you. They'll work directly with our leadership team to make it happen for you if possible. I can personally promise you that every request will be considered.
For anyone not part of the Icare family that's looking into a new account or reopening your old account, I'd like to also extend the same commitment. Talk to our friendly sales team to help us find whatever it takes to win your business for a lab partnership in 2025 that will go above and beyond to take care of your business.
