The Adelaide facility was suddenly closed on 20 February and the Perth facility on 21 February. With a few exceptions, all ployees have had their ployment terminated, including some with up to 30 years’ service.That left the company’s headquarters and laboratory in Sydney and branches in Melbourne and Brisbane.
However eight people at the Sydney facility had their ployment terminated on 22 February, as did one at the Brisbane facility.
Hoya Lens Australia has been affected by flooding of Hoya’s ‘super laboratory’ in Bangkok late last year and resulting damage to the 189 free-form lens surfacing machines and to the overall operations there (see separate report).
The Perth branch was opened in 1978. In 2000, Hoya bought Top Optical’s prescription laboratory there and expanded its activities. The laboratory became the backbone of the company’s operations in Western Australia and was also a handy back-up for the main Sydney laboratory because of the time-zone difference allowing receipt of orders, production and dispatch when laboratories on the eastern seaboard were closed.
Hoya is gradually boosting production at its Sydney laboratory, much of which, along with most other major laboratories in Australia, had been wound down considerably as they transferred substantial production to lower-cost laboratories in Asia – either Thailand or China – prior to the flooding there.
