PLEASANTON, Calif.—The Cooper Companies Inc., (NYSE:COO) a leading vision care company, reported late last week that first-quarter revenue increased 18 percent to $590 million, with sales in the CooperVision (CVI) unit climbing 14 percent to $444.8 million and sales in the CooperSurgical (CSI) business increasing 32 percent to $145.2 million in the quarter ended Jan. 31, 2018. The company wide sales increase totaled 4 percent on a pro forma basis (defined as constant currency and including acquisitions in both periods). Robert S. Weiss, Cooper’s president and chief executive officer, said, in the earnings announcement that the company is “off to a very nice start this fiscal year with solid revenue growth and very strong profits.”

He added, “I'm excited about our continuing growth within CooperVision, driven by our 1-Day silicone hydrogel and Biofinity franchises along with our positioning with Paragard at CooperSurgical. The future continues to look bright.”

Weiss, as VMAIL reported last week, has announced his plans to retire as of April 30, and he will be succeeded by Albert G. White III as president and CEO of The Cooper Companies, effective May 1.

In the CooperVision business segment, sales increased 8 percent at constant currency (cc) to $444.8 million on a year-over-year basis. The business was boosted by the performance of the company’s silicone hydrogel lenses, including the MyDay, Clariti and Biofinity product lines. By category within the CooperVision segment, the top performing lenses in the quarter were toric (31 percent of segment sales), multifocal (11 percent), single-use sphere lenses (26 percent) and non single-use sphere lenses (32 percent). Multifocal sales gained 5 percent compared to the year-ago results to $46.9 million (cc), while toric revenues rose 9 percent to $137.8 million.

Single-use sphere lens sales increased 11 percent to $116.3 million, while sales of non single-use sphere lenses gained 4 percent to $143.8 million.

Cooper also updated its fiscal year 2018 guidance in last week’s announcement. The company now expects fiscal 2018 total revenue in a range of $2,510 million to $2,560 million, with CooperVision revenues in the range of $1,865 million to $1,900 million. Fiscal 2018 non-GAAP diluted earnings per share are expected to fall within the range of $11.70 to $11.90.