Wisco Branding: Amplifying voices, connecting with community
For the ‘Love’ of kids, football and giving back
June 15, 2026
GREEN BAY – For patients, Adam Cherry – president of Cherry Optical Lab – said getting glasses is fairly straightforward: an eye exam, followed by pickup a week or two later.
Behind the scenes, however, Adam said Cherry Optical Lab operates a highly detailed manufacturing process, producing thousands of custom lenses daily, each built to precise prescription specifications.
“We don’t make inventory of eyeglasses – we make live orders,” he said. “Every order is slightly different, yet we make thousands a day.”
That complexity, combined with growing national demand, Adam said, is driving one of the largest expansions in Cherry Optical Lab’s history.
The family-owned company, he said, is investing heavily in new equipment, advanced technology, expanded manufacturing space and additional employees.
Adam said the investment builds on the lab’s recently completed upgrade to its surfacing operations and includes plans to significantly expand its coating department with a new purpose-built facility, more than doubling its footprint from 6,000 square feet to more than 15,000 square feet.
He said the project includes the installation of two additional Satisloh 1200 DLX2 AR coaters, nearly doubling the lab’s coating capacity.
Behind the lenses
Despite vast demand for vision correction, Adam said it’s an industry few people actively think about.
“Most folks think eyeglasses just get stamped out of a sheet of plastic,” he said.
Adam said some of the disconnect might come from the fact that Cherry Optical Lab is not a consumer-facing business, but a wholesale optical laboratory serving independent optometrists, ophthalmologists and opticians across the country.
“The analogy is we’re similar to a pharmacist – the doctor selects the right prescription, the optician helps to fit the patient in the eyewear/frames they like and then all that information is sent to us to begin fabrication, production and final assembly and delivery of the final product,” he said.
Adam said the company manufactures lenses almost exclusively for independent eyecare practices and some medical groups, rather than large chain retailers or big-box stores.
Investing in technology
The process, he said, is increasingly driven by advanced manufacturing technology designed to maximize efficiency – a shift that prompted a major upgrade to Cherry Optical’s surfacing equipment.
Adam said they replaced the lab’s SCHNEIDER surface blockers, generators and polishers installed in 2020 and 2021 with newer modulo ONE series machines.
“The previous generation of machinery installed in 2020-21 served us well,” he said. “Our lasting partnership with SCHNEIDER gave us the confidence to upgrade to the ONE series. These new machines have significantly increased capacity, speed and resiliency to our digital surfacing operations.”
Surface production feeds directly into coating production, where Adam said Cherry Optical is making what he describes as its largest investment since about 2021 – which will help position the company for the future.
“The biggest thing it means is ensuring we can compete, and it’s a competitive industry,” he said. “While it’s an industry you don’t think about very often, eyeglasses are being made for all kinds of eyeballs everywhere, every day.”
Adam said the new coating facility is designed not only to increase production capacity, but also to improve workflow efficiency throughout the operation.
For the past 14 years, Coating Lab Senior Manager Ryan Vande Walle said Cherry Optical Lab has grown piece by piece – “adding rooms, adding machines and adapting the space whenever demand required it.”
“Now, for the first time, we get to design the entire operation from the ground up,” he said.
Adam said workflow improvements are expected to create immediate gains.
“We’re expecting a pretty significant improvement in throughput and capacity… by making production more linear and immediately [able to] reach gains,” he said.
Adam said the expansion also positions Cherry Optical to potentially manufacture multiple proprietary coating technologies under one roof – something that would be unique within the industry.
“My excitement is when we land those, we will be one of one in the western hemisphere,” he said. “The two largest companies in the optical industry have their own unique coating technologies, so for us to produce both of those technologies under one roof, that would be the ‘one of one.’”
Coating leads into edging, inspection and finish operations, where Adam said the company has also completed significant laboratory reconfiguration designed to improve quality and maintain delivery timelines.
Adam said the company has also heavily invested in edging, inspection and finishing operations through new automation systems from MEI.
“Speed alone is not our objective,” he said. “Speed with accuracy and capability is what we look for in automation systems from MEI, the gold standard in these objectives. Our extensive experience with milling technology has unlocked outstanding results.”
“The real magic of lens production takes place when it is time to assemble and inspect the finished product, and in this area, we have also made significant investments in our team,” he said.
Adam said the company’s bench area has expanded to support continued growth while improving workflows for employees assembling and inspecting finished eyewear.
“Our team members are our most important asset, and we want to ensure they have all the tools and space they need to produce outstanding results,” he said.
Strong family foundation
Adam said the company’s roots can be traced back to Joe and Lynn Cherry, who entered the optical industry in 1974 while working for a Green Bay optical company before eventually launching Cherry Optical Lab in 1999.
Joe, Adam said, focused on the business side, while Lynn specialized in technical operations, and together built the foundation for what would become a nationally recognized independent optical laboratory.
Adam said he joined the company full-time in 2002 as employee number five, handling deliveries and IT work while attending college before eventually working through nearly every department and becoming president in 2012.
“I can remember when my parents, it was just the two of them, and I was helping out,” he said. “To be at a point where we’re producing product across the country, with hundreds of employees…, I know what I need to do to keep it going.”
The ‘Happy Humans’ philosophy
Adam said Cherry Optical Lab’s efficient workflow is further supported by its “Happy Humans” philosophy, which has become a cornerstone of the company’s culture and long-term growth strategy.
“When we did market analysis and asked our customers what they think of us, that was the No. 1 thing,” he said. “Running into can-do, happy, helpful people who can help you [is a differentiator]. It’s becoming commonplace to get bad service [from businesses].”
Adam said maintaining that culture requires continual investment in employees, communication and benefits.
He said the company offers fully funded health insurance premiums, vision benefits, retirement plans and life insurance, while also emphasizing employee appreciation through workplace perks and opportunities.
“We want to show our team members that we want them to develop a career here and a profession and not just a job,” he said.
Those investments, Adam said, extend beyond machinery.
Cherry Optical Lab, he said, has added more than 100 positions since 2024 and expects employment to approach 380 workers by the end of this year.
But, Adam said, company leadership thinks beyond just employee numbers.
“It’s not just those people – it’s the people and the kitchen tables they sit at,” he said. “When we’re making decisions about the future, we try to extend it beyond day to day with team members and think of their families as well.”
Expanding across the country
Adam said the company’s growth has largely come through expanding relationships with independent eyecare professionals across the country, with a growing slate of salespeople in markets across the U.S. sharing the Cherry Optical Lab difference.
“All the growth we’re achieving is primarily driven by new doors and new customers coming to us,” he said.
Cherry Optical Lab hired its first out-of-state sales representative roughly 10 years ago, in New Hampshire – a move Cherry said changed the company’s understanding of its national potential.
“It opened our eyes to [how] what we’re doing here is marketable, unique and can be repeated anywhere in the country,” he said.
Adam said the company has since expanded into highly competitive markets, including New York City, southern Florida and northern California, while continuing to grow throughout smaller regional markets as well.
It’s a mix that makes sense, he said, in what he calls a very mature market.
“We have to go into a market, a town, a state, a region, and we’re trying to unseat the incumbent laboratory when we do,” he said.
Adam said the company’s reputation for service, quality and speed has been critical to winning business away from competitors.
“Price isn’t everything,” he said. “If the price is [better] in China but takes seven to 10 days to arrive, your patients will get impatient; it’s not worth that savings.”
Adam said Cherry Optical’s location in Northeast Wisconsin is also a competitive advantage.
“One thing about Northeast Wisconsin in particular is the work ethic is still very real here,” he said. “There is certainly individual pride, but also among the community, among friends, family, peers – being a blue-collar worker… is still well regarded here.”
Adam said that mindset has helped the company compete against international manufacturers producing lenses at lower costs overseas.
“When we are competing with companies that can leverage financial benefits of producing in Mexico or Vietnam or Thailand, that’s tough,” he said. “You can’t do the same service quality and support that Mexico delivers. You have to be faster, more consistent and offer better warranties and better customer support.”
Looking ahead
Adam said Cherry Optical Lab is also continuing to modernize customer support through the launch of its “Happy Human Hub,” an online portal designed to centralize marketing materials, reporting tools and resources for independent eyecare professionals.
Construction on the new coating facility started in early June, and Adam said he anticipates moving into the new space this fall, with the existing coating lab repurposed by next spring.
Despite the scale of the investment, Cherry said the company’s focus remains on continual improvement rather than simply becoming larger.
“As we [work] faster and faster, the driver isn’t always bigger,” he said. “Bigger will happen through success and doing a great job.”
Adam said for him, the company’s mission ultimately comes back to the people waiting for the products Cherry Optical Lab creates every day.
“While we might be making 3,500 orders shipping on a day like today, each one of those is going to somebody in the world who’s waiting for it,” he said.
