Japanese lens maker jacking up capacity of PH plant

Tanauan City, Batangas —Japanese lens maker Hoya has invested P822 million in new equipment to make millions more of corrective eyeglass lenses in the Philippines, most of which will be exported.

This was infused during its current fiscal year ending in March 2020, according to Ellen Vergara, finance general manager of Hoya’s local manufacturing unit, EHS Lens Philippines Inc.

Since Hoya acquired EHS Lens in 2013, the company had invested a total of $96.3 million, or over P5 billion in the country. Its manufacturing plant in Tanauan City, Batangas, produces two kinds of lenses—the mass-produced stock lens and the custom-made prescription lenses.

Vergara said $15.3 million was allotted to increase the company’s production capacity for prescription lenses, from 850,000 a month to 1.2 million.

The remaining $472,000 is allotted to improve the efficiency of its stock lens production.

The plant is located in the First Philippine Industrial Zone. Over 99 percent of its output are exported to the United States, Europe and Asia, mainly Japan.

Vergara said the company had been enjoying income tax holiday since 2013. The four-year tax break was extended for another two years in February this year, after it was able to prove that the plant was a “pioneer” in the corrective lens industry.

Alberto De Los Reyes Jr., president of EHS Lens, said the company had 2,000 workers who would likely increase by 400 to 500 with the expansion.

The firm is increasing its capacity to meet rising demand.

Each prescription lens is tailor fit to the eye requirements of the customer. These job orders, which reach several millions a year, are individually inspected and manufactured every day by workers at the plant.—ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL