U.S. Vision, Inc.
Proposed Ticker:USVI 1 Harmon Drive
Exchange:NASDAQ-National Market Blackwood, NJ 08012
Industry:Retail (SIC Code 5995) (609) 228-1000
# of Employees:2500

Filing Information
Type of Shares:Common Shares Filing Date:9/17/97
U.S. Shares Filed:4,000,000 Filing Range:$11.00 - $13.00
Non-U.S. Shares Filed:0 Offering Amount: $48,000,000
Primary Shares:2,500,000 Expenses:$550,000
Secondary Shares:1,500,000 Shares Out After:7,072,043

Primary Underwriting Group
ManagerTierPhone
Salomon Brothers Inc.Lead Manager (212) 783-2947
Janney Montgomery ScottCo-manager (215) 665-6520

Legal Counsel, Auditor and Registrar
Issuer's Law Firm: Sayles Lidji & Casterline
Bank's Law Firm: Dewey Ballantine
Auditor: Ernst & Young
Registrar/Transfer Agent: Registrar and Transfer Company, New Jersey

Selected Financial Data

Dollar amounts in U.S. millions except for per share data
6 Month Ending Financials
Full Year
Audited
Income
Latest
Unaudited
Income
Prior
Unaudited
Income
Balance
Sheet
1/31/97 7/31/97 7/31/96 7/31/97
Revenue:$111.54$62.05$57.37Assets:$61.83
Net Income:$4.51$4.15$3.13Curr Assets:$33.09
EPS:$0.62$0.57$0.43Liabilities:$45.09
Prior EPS:-$0.28$1.36Curr Liabilities:$25.77
Cash Flow/Oper:$4.17$3.87-$0.76Equity:$16.74
Cash Flow/Fin:-$0.83-$3.54-$1.41Cash:$0.43
Cash Flow/Inv:-$4.49-$3.54Working Cap:$7.32

Business Description
The company is a leading retailer of optical products and services primarily through licensed retail optical departments located in national and regional department stores. The company's retail optical departments are generally full-service retail vision care stores that offer an extensive selection of designer brands and private label prescription eyewear, contact lenses, sunglasses and accessories with an on-premises, independent optometrist who performs complete eye examinations and prescribes eyeglasses and contact lenses. As of July 31, 1997, the Company operated 558 locations in 48 states, consisting of 495 licensed retail optical departments and 63 freestanding stores. The Company currently operates 368 J.C. Penney Company, Inc. ("J.C. Penney") retail optical departments and is J.C. Penney's primary optical licensee. In addition, the Company operates 57 Sears Roebuck and Co. ("Sears") retail optical departments and 70 retail optical departments in regional department stores such as Federated (Rich's, Burdines and Lazarus), May (Kaufmann's, Famous Barr and L.S. Ayres), Marshall Fields and Carson Pirie Scott, among others. The Company's freestanding stores are generally located in malls and shopping centers.

Competition
The retail optical business is highly competitive, and many of the Company's competitors have greater financial and other resources than the Company. The Company competes with other national, regional and local retail optical chains and independent optical retailers. Optical retailers generally serve individual or local markets and, as a result, competition is fragmented and varies substantially among locations and geographic areas. The principal competitive factors affecting the Company's retail operations are merchandise selection, quality and consistency of products and services, price, location within the host store, convenience, availability of on-site professional eye examinations andaccess to a host store's private label credit card. The retail optical industry engages in price-related promotional offers as a standard marketing practice. Periods of intense price competition resulting from such offers could materially affect the Company's profitability. Additionally, the Company faces competition from advances in vision correction technologies, including laser surgery and other surgical vision correction procedures. This could result in decreased demand for eyeglasses and contact lenses, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business, financial condition or results of operations. To the extent U.S. Vision's customers may not be covered by its eye care benefit plans, the Company may compete with other vision care benefit plans and retailers who provide alternative vision care plans. As the number of national and regional managed vision care programs increase, competition for customers will intensify among the various vision care programs.

Business Plan
The company intends to pursue a strategy of growth through internal expansion and acquisitions, as opportunities arise. This strategy is likely to place significant demands on the Company's capital, operational and management resources and may expose the Company to a variety of risks, including the risk that the Company will be unable to retain personnel or acquire other resources necessary to service such growth adequately. The Company's expansion strategy is predominantly dependent upon its expansion within its current host stores, particularly J.C. Penney.

Use of Proceeds
The proceeds from the proposed offering will be used to repay certain outstanding indebtedness and for working capital and for general corporate purposes including store openings and remodelings.

Principal and Selling Shareholders
Name of Shareholder% Owned
Before
% Owned
After
J. Roger Sullivan, Jr.36.80%16.80%
Dennis J. Shaughnessy36.80%16.80%
Grotech III Pennsylvania Fund, L.P.28.70%9.50%
E. Theodore Stolberg28.70%9.50%
Richard K. McDonald13.90%6.30%
Keystone Ventures IV L.P.10.20%4.70%
G. Kenneth Macrae10.20%4.70%
Constitution Partners I, L.P.9.20%4.20%
William A. Schwartz, Jr.6.00%4.00%
Note: Represents ownership of 5% or more prior to the offering.
Executive Officers and Directors
Officer NameTitleAge
Reid V. EiknerExecutive Vice President, Finance and Administration54
Gayle E. SchmidtExecutive Vice President, Manufacturing45
George T. GormanExecutive Vice President, Retail46
James M. McGrathExecutive Vice President, Retail Operations57
William A. Schwartz,Jr.President, Chief Executive Officer and Director56
George E. McHenry, Jr.Secretary, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer45

©1997 IPO Data Systems, Inc. - All rights reserved.