On September 30, 2024, Menicon Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: 21-19, Aoi 3, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Japan; President and COO: Koji Kawaura) announced that it acquired 100% of the shares and ownership of three distributors in Southeast Asia (*1) from Oculus Pte Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Oculus), a contact lens manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Singapore.
Oculus, of which we have acquired part of the shares, manufactures and distributes contact lenses primarily in Southeast Asia. Particularly, its “FreshKon (*2)” brand, which features colored contact lenses, has a high brand recognition with a strong sales network of more than 2,000 stores.
Before this acquisition of shares, Menicon expanded its sales in Southeast Asia through exports and sales agents. However, it was deemed necessary to have sales bases in this region, where the contact lens market is expected to grow with the increase in the young population and income. This has also resulted in the acquisition of shares of three distributors (*1).
Menicon’s production facilities in Singapore and Malaysia, with the latter being the company’s largest production facility (scheduled for operation in the second half of the fiscal year ending March 2026), are the production bases of daily disposable contact lenses in Southeast Asia. With the acquisition of shares, Menicon has achieved establishment of both sales and production bases in Southeast Asia. This is expected to boost growth of the Menicon Group in this region.
(*1) Menicon acquired the shares of the following three distributors:
Company name: Oculus Visioncare (S) Pte. Ltd. (Singapore)
Address: 10 Kaki Bukit Avenue 1 #06-08 Singapore 417942
Company name: Oculus (M) Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia)
Address: No.27, Jalan BS 7/1D, Seksyen 7, Taman Perindustrian Bukit Serdang, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor Malaysia
Company name: PT Oculus Indonesia (Indonesia)
Address: Wisma Abadi, Jl. Balikpapan No. 31, Unit B5 Lt. 1-2, Petojo Selatan, Jakarta Pusat 10160, Indonesia
(*2) “FreshKon”: Branded products will continuously be marketed in Southeast Asia but not in Japan.