Ken and Lisa Stann

MT. CLEMENS, Mich.—Eight years after Kenneth Stann and Rob Farrell, OD, purchased SVS Vision, the company has grown from 52 locations to 62 and recently restructured its executive management team to facilitate even more growth.

"Adding ten offices doesn't sound like much," Stann said, "but among the original 52, we closed three and moved or did a complete remodel on about half of our locations." These changes were completed not only to create consistency across all of the company's locations but also to accommodate more patients by adding more examination lanes.

With closings and remodels behind them, SVS Vision more recently restructured its executive management team to move Stann and Farrell away from the day-to-day operations to focus on strategic growth. This was made possible by placing the daily details in the hands of Lisa Stann, who was promoted from vice president of retail operations to executive vice president and chief operating officer. The company's general counsel, David Cassell, was named chief administrative officer.


About half of the 52 locations in operation when the company was purchased in 2007 have been completely remodeled.

Ken Stann and Dr. Farrell are now free to expand the company without becoming mired in the details. "Neither one of us is a process efficiency guy, which was fine when we were doing $30 million and had 50 offices," said Ken Stann. "Well, doing $70 million with 62 offices, you can't bring everything to the table anymore."

New Headquarters, Centralized Lab
To further improve efficiencies, SVS Vision bought a new building a few months ago to house its new corporate headquarters. The newly purchased 18,000-square-foot building is only about a quarter mile from the company's original headquarters here. A retail operation is also moving along with the company headquarters, while the centralized lab will remain in the original 8,000-square-foot facility.

The lab will also be upgraded with new equipment, including a third MEI robotic edger and a strip-and-dip system that will enable the company to ensure more consistency with the finished product. "If your anti-reflective coating isn't compatible with the manufacturer's hardcoat, that might cause it to crack or craze," said Lisa Stann. "This will help us with consistency and quality."


SVS Vision's headquarters are moving about a quarter mile down the road.

Overseeing the lab and its integration with the company's retail operations has become one of Lisa Stann's primary functions these days. She described one way she helped improve efficiencies: "We walked through every transaction placed in the system, how they were keyed in and how they read in the lab" she said, referring to how the opticians in the various locations entered orders in their point-of-sale system and how those orders were communicated to the lab management system. "That helped the orders go through faster, and the lab spends less time trying to figure out what the office wanted."

All One Team
Ken Stann envisions these structural changes as bringing everyone together as a team. "I don't think there should be a difference between the professional staff, the doctors, and our retail team," he said. "We should all be on one team. We try to talk about our professional team and our retail management team as being under one umbrella. Now we're conceptualizing the lab as an extension of the retail team and the retail team as an extension of the lab. You really can't have one without the other. "

Both Tina Manoogian, the new vice president of retail, and Fred Chandonnet, vice president of manufacturing, report to Lisa, "which makes it easier," said Ken Stann. "All of a sudden it's one team, and that's what we're trying to get at."

Official Detroit Lions Optical Provider
With his company now functioning as a cohesive unit, Ken Stann can focus on another team, the Detroit Lions. SVS Vision was just named the official optical provider of the Detroit Lions. The multi-year agreement includes "extensive brand activation" in the SVS Vision Concourse on the north side of Ford Field, which consists of company branding on every pillar throughout the 100-yard concourse on the main seating level.


One benefit of being the Detroit Lions official optical provider is 100 yards of branding in the SVS Vision Concourse.

In addition, the "extensive brand activation" serves as more than just name recognition but also encourages fans to visit an SVS location. Previous incentives have included sunglass giveaways and percentage-off programs.

"SVS Vision has been a proud sponsor of the Detroit Lions since 2009," said Ken Stann. "We're excited to expand our relationship with the team. As a life-long Michigan resident and Detroit Lions' fan, I understand the importance that the Detroit Lions have in our community, and we look forward to continuing our strong relationship with them."

Detroit Lions team president, Tom Lewand, said, "As a Michigan company with strong roots in the metro Detroit area, SVS Vision has been a valuable partner of the Detroit Lions. We've advanced that relationship and now, as the team's official optical provider, the leaping lion will be in SVS retail stores throughout the state."

This isn't the first time SVS Vision has partnered with local sports teams to get its message across. The company also spearheaded advertising behind home plate at the Detroit Tigers' Comerica Park and in other local teams' venues.

For more on the growth of SVS Vision since its acquisition by Ken Stann and Rob Farrell, OD, see " Built on a Foundation of Managed Care, SVS Vision Achieves Growth in Optical Retail," from the Feb. 6, 2013 edition of dba.