A NEW manufacturing site to produce revolutionary glasses opens today following major investment by an Oxford firm.

Adlens has ploughed £1.2m into the site in Osney Lane, Oxford and employed 15 new staff as it looks to start making its spectacles in house for the first time.

The company specialises in glasses which can be adapted using special dials built into the frames, allowing the wearer to use one pair for a wide range of uses from reading to driving.

Frank Laverty, vice-president of operations, said: “We have hired a high calibre of individual to help production and plan and maintain continuous improvement in the products.”

The new 2,000 sq ft facility is the third site in Oxford for the firm which has grown rapidly in the last two years.

It has an innovation centre at First Turn off the Woodstock Road and its global headquarters are in Park End Street.

It now employs a total of 90 staff, a number which has more than quadrupled in the last 18 months.

The business has also employed suppliers including firms in Abingdon and Thame to provide materials, further boosting the county economy.

Adlens has been undergoing a major development phase around the word to test the technology originally developed by nuclear physicist Dr Joshua Silver, of New College, Oxford, who filled lenses with a transparent fluid, enabling the focus to be changed. The company was founded by James Chen in 2005 with the aim of providing eyewear to people in the developing world.

Philanthropist and businessman Mr Chen has continued to fund the company to exploit its commercial potential. Mr Laverty added: “The vision was that we could take this and develop a product that could compete with varifocal lenses.

“Now we have hired a team to take it into volume production.”

The first major market for Adlens will be the US, where the company has signed a deal with major optical retailers Lens Crafters.

It is hoped Adlens glasses will go on sale in the UK by 2015.

“We have the capability to make up to 30,000 pairs a year without any further investment in equipment,” said Mr Laverty.

Most of the new workforce has been recruited in the county with Adlens tapping into its pool of academic and experienced engineering expertise.

The new site will be officially opened todayby former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer.