LCA-Vision Provides Business Update and Market Review
7:00a ET June 25, 2008 (PR NewsWire)
LCA-Vision Inc. (Nasdaq: LCAV), a leading provider of laser vision correction services under the LasikPlus(R) brand, is providing an update on the company's business and a review of market conditions for the company's services.
"Macro-economic conditions continue to negatively impact consumer confidence and discretionary spending, leading to continued softness in LasikPlus(R) appointments by prospective patients and disappointing show rates," said Steven C. Straus, Chief Executive Officer of LCA-Vision. "We also believe that media coverage leading up to and following the April 25, 2008 Food and Drug Administration Ophthalmic Devices Panel negatively impacted our business in May and June. Our total procedure volume for the second quarter of 2008 is expected to be down approximately 40% compared with the second quarter of 2007.
"On the positive side, IntraLase(R) is available in 73 of our 76 LasikPlus(R) vision centers and month-to-date is being utilized in about 69% of our procedures, up from 55% in March," Mr. Straus said. "We continue to expand our market presence, and have plans to open our 77th and 78th LasikPlus(R) vision centers during the third quarter, which will bring our 2008 new center openings to six. We also plan to relocate three or four older locations by the end of this year. We are committed to success at each LasikPlus(R) vision center and have no plans at this time to close any facility.
"Our management team has been working collaboratively with constituents throughout the company and our external business partners to make the best decisions in each market, and we are implementing initiatives at the center level to optimize our performance," said Mr. Straus. "Some of these initiatives include:
-- Implementing simplified market-specific pricing for the first time based on testing conducted over the past four months in multiple LasikPlus(R) markets.
-- Completing our well-received employee sales and conversion effectiveness training at all LasikPlus(R) vision centers by the end of this month.
-- Modifying our center-level incentive compensation plans to further align our center-level teams with our growth objectives.
-- Taking measures to manage our expense structure, including more closely aligning our staffing with expected procedure volume and our national and local media spend with the current consumer sentiment.
"We remain committed to our strategic and operating plans, which are built upon positive patient experiences, quality clinical outcomes, advanced technology, thoughtful expansion, and prudent revenue and expense management," added Mr. Straus.
According to Anthony Woods, LCA-Vision's Chairman, "The LCA-Vision Board of Directors strongly supports the executive management team in affirming the strategic direction of the company. We are committed to our business model and our strategy. Consumers are confronted with record-high gasoline prices, increasing food costs and declining home values in the face of a softening economy and growing job uncertainty. Many Americans are reining in their expenses, and are deferring or eliminating purchases that just one year ago they viewed differently. In this environment, there is no quick fix to restoring growth in procedure volume, but rather, we will focus on proven strategies, while we prudently explore new opportunities to maximize effectiveness throughout our organization. As Steve mentioned, we are taking a more grassroots approach to operations, with the knowledge that all healthcare is delivered locally, and that success will be achieved on a market-by-market basis in partnership with our LasikPlus(R) surgeons and vision center teams."
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