Welcome to the Winter 2007 edition of Contact Now. These newsletters are designed to keep you up to date with developments at David Thomas and to give you information on the latest additions to our product range. You will note that this is the thirty seventh issue of Contact Now so the tradition of issuing a Company Newsletter goes back many years. As you would expect from a progressive Company DTCL is unrecognizable from the organization it was when the first Newsletter was produced.

Earlier this year we purchased Troy Contact Lenses Ltd who manufactured soft lenses for a diverse customer base including hospital eye clinics. Their specialist product range complemented our own and reinforced our strategy of becoming the leading contact lens supplier in the specialist and gas permeable market. We believe that we now offer a wide range of products that allow us to fulfill most of your patients needs including young babies with congenital aphakia through to keratoconus patients with advanced cones and anything in between! Brief details of the Troy contact lens range are listed elsewhere in this issue of Contact Now. May I take this opportunity to again welcome the Troy customers as new customers of David Thomas and remind them that we are only a telephone call away if they wish to discuss any aspect of our range or service.
You will also find in this Newsletter information on ACT which allows us to vary the edge lift in different quadrants of the lens. This has only been made possible by using the latest lathing technology.

Our contact lens business is now worldwide and to facilitate this we have now opened a new Euro Bank account. Details of how this works are again contained in this newsletter.

DTCL was founded thirty five years ago by my father David Thomas and it is with great sadness that I have to inform you he died in October after a long illness. My Father had a long and successful career in optics and you will find his obituary in the pages of this Newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who sent letters and cards of support to our family at this difficult time.

The European Federation of the Contact lens Industry (EFCLIN) recently held their annual conference and exhibition in Spain.

Several awards are made at the Conference every year, one of which is the EFCLIN Technology Award. This award is extended to individuals who have contributed to the contact lens industry with innovative technological developments. Awards are given to recipients who have shown dedication far beyond their own commercial interests or who have made outstanding contributions in some form or another. These may be of a technical nature that might include inventions and ideas that have resulted in significant improvement or impact upon the industry. An award might be given to an individual who has spent a lifetime promoting contact lenses or to someone who has undertaken pioneering work in his or her field.

I am pleased to inform you that Dr Paul Rose OD, FNZCLS the designer of the Rose K2 keratoconus lens system and founder of Rose K International was given the EFCLIN Technology Award this year for his work in the field of contact lens designs for keratoconus and the irregular cornea. His designs have provided practitioners across the world with an easier solution to providing corrected vision and improving the life of these difficult patients. Many keratoconus patients benefit from Paul’s lens designs on a daily basis.