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VIENNA, Va.—One of the first U.S. major eyecare groups to close its offices on March 19 due to the arrival of COVID-19 as the CDC, AOA and other states started to recommend the postponement of routine eyecare, MyEyeDr. marshalled its executive, regional, staff and professional doctors’ teams to move to emergency and urgent care. The 600-location group, managed by Capital Vision Services, which late last year moved into a new partnership with Goldman Sachs’ Merchant Banking, had been gearing up for another year of growth and expansion.
Acquisition activity needed to take a back seat to other things for a time. Stated Sue Downes, co-founder and CEO, “Our energy continues to be focused on maintaining MyEyeDr.’s position as the leader in patient experience, team member experience, and partner of choice for doctors. While the pandemic certainly presented some unique challenges that we had to adapt to, we have not wavered from our core values and also plan to forge ahead with measured growth this year.”
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David Sheffer, MyEyeDr.’s chief growth officer, added, “We paused closings between March and August just to give our business time to get back open and become accustomed to new operating protocols putting everyone’s safety and health as our first priority. We also needed time for our practices who will be joining us to open back up and bring their talented teams back to work.”
Today, all but a few MyEyeDr. offices are open. But, he said, “We are seeing a stability in our existing offices and forging ahead with our plans for expansion so long as each opportunity meets our criteria.” Sheffer told VM, “We originally planned to acquire more than 100 practices in 2020 and that is still the case.”
Explained Downes, “Pre-COVID, we were very focused on continuing to drive the modernization of our patient experience and we have used this time to really drive that transformation as well as securing PPE, improved practice metric tracking, daily recognition of our teams who go above and beyond, and exploration of various telemedicine technologies. We intend to stay focused at those even as we bring in new practices to the organization.”
Asked if the current climate has changed the nature of the deals that MED intends to pursue, Sheffer said, “We have always been picky about who we align with and that will continue. I can’t speak for others, but I do think there will continue to be a flight to quality in terms of clinician, strength of practice, etc. We have a great partner in Goldman Sachs who has arguably some of the best insights and perspective on the macroeconomic environment in the world, so we will continue to leverage their information and guidance.”
He added, “We are in a very strong position financially thanks to our partnership with Goldman but want to protect that so we are very thoughtful about each and every decision. “
Stated Downes, “We certainly can’t ignore the fact that we are in the middle of a global pandemic. We also must recognize as an industry that changes have occurred to how we interact with our patients that may fundamentally change the way eyecare practices operate for years to come. With no way to predict when this will pass, MyEyeDr. will remain measured with each decision but we are a growth oriented business and intend to stay that way.”
MyEyeDr./Capital Vision Services achieved double-digit sales growth in 2019 and finished last year with 569 locations (in 26 states), an increase of 132 offices. The group also saw sales increase 28.2 percent to $772 million in calendar year 2019. MyEyeDr. once again ranked No. 7 on the May 2020 Vision Monday Top 50 Optical Retailers list. MyEyeDr. entered seven new states in 2019, and it expects to continue expanding in such new geographies as Texas, Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan and Wisconsin. Increasingly, MyEyeDr.’s almost-1,000 optometrists are offering a range of specialty eye health services and are elevating new training and leadership programs.