South Lanarkshire manufacturer Daysoft outlines strategic vision after selling billionth contact lens

Blantyre-based manufacturer Daysoft has cheered selling its billionth contact lens, and is stressing its continued focus on lowering the cost to customers of such products.

The company was founded in 2001 by Dr Ron Hamilton, who is billed as the inventor of the world’s first disposable contact lens, and it has grown to 150 staff and a million customers in 93 countries with more than 100,000 people now wearing its soft contact lenses every day.

It also says it is the only contact lens company in the world that manufactures lenses and sells directly to customers, and now competes with US giants including Johnson & Johnson, CooperVision and Bausch & Lomb. The Scottish firm also says it is behind the world’s most affordable daily-disposable contact lens, with prices starting at 20 pence each – compared to what it says is a broader average price of 25 pence to 50 pence.

The business is now targeting a growing demand for affordable lenses worldwide, citing a SkyQuestt study forecasting the demand for such products to continually rise to 2028 with the daily-disposable segment predicted to be the fastest growing.

Dr Hamilton said: “At Daysoft, we see [our latest] news as validation for our ongoing mission to lower the cost of contact lenses for wearers in the UK and around the world. It shouldn’t be the case that people are having to choose between buying vision care products or putting food on the table. For the last 20 years, we have gotten used to being underestimated by the industry, but this milestone is a statement to other suppliers that Daysoft is not going away anytime soon.”