Tom Frinzi: Yes. No, no problem, John. Thanks for the question. I was there in February or March of this year. On the back end of our expert user meeting that was in Japan. And again, I continue to be impressed every time and I’ve spent 3 trips there in the last 15 months that restaurants are crowded, malls are crowded. People are out spending money. And again, in our largest account in that region, they had a very good Q1 year-over-year. And again, as Patrick said, that’s against a pretty strong comp. So I continue to feel good every time on the year in terms of the consumer reaction, clinics are busy, et cetera, et cetera. So my confidence remains high. China is a big part of our revenue today. It will continue to be a big part of our revenue, and we continue to invest appropriately. We hope to probably exit this year going from about 80 employees on the ground to over 100, again, demonstrating our commitment to that market, and that market’s commitment back to us.
Patrick Williams: Yes. Maybe to add, part of it is adding the second distributor that we talked about in my prepared comments, but trying to become more efficient, being able to deliver products more timely, especially in this Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities, and that was a big reason why we did bring on the second distributor, which had a much larger infrastructure within China. So that perhaps gives us an opportunity to get some more people out there.
John Young: Great. And then just circle back. Have you guys seen any updates on the local competition from the eclipses? Or are you thinking about any VBP impact?
Tom Frinzi: Yes. No, I think what we continue to hear that they could come to the market sometime in the second half of this year or early into next year. But again, as we have said in the past, John, you’ve heard it from us a couple of times, I think competition is a good thing that they’re coming. It validates the market opportunity, all boats rise, if you will. But again, a couple of things about that product in particular, it’s an acrylic material. That material has certainly come to the market in the past and not been successful. It will only be spherical and not toric. And about 50% of our revenue comes from the toric side. So we think that’s going to hamper that rollout. But we’re certainly cognizant of, respectful of competition coming, but I think we have strategies in place and a strong team on the ground to be able to continue our momentum even in the face of competition coming.
Operator: And our next question today comes from Anthony Petrone at Mizuho Group.
Anthony Petrone: I’ll have one on China and one on the U.S. On China, Tom, curious just your thoughts more on the stimulus program announced in March, and we have a couple of companies focused in China in different areas of med tech. And there is a thought that in the second half, we can see some momentum from stimulus specifically. So any thoughts on how stimulus plays out for ICL in China into the second half? And then I’ll have one quick follow-up on U.S.
Tom Frinzi: Sure. Yes, Anthony, obviously, customers seem encouraged by the stimulus. As we signaled, we thought originally, we would see a relatively flat first half of the year in China with growth in the second half. We’ve obviously seen the growth in Q1. So I think stimulus is being well received, and our customers has certainly signaled to us that the second half of the year, they should feel the impact of it.
Anthony Petrone: That’s helpful. And a quick follow-up on U.S. at the ASCRS meeting had some studies on just bulk measurements and how that plays out for — in the surgeon training, but also just implementation real world. So just wondering your latest thoughts on bulk measurements in the U.S. what is the timing for potentially seeing a software program that can streamline that process? And do you still view that as a barrier here in the U.S. adoption curve?
Tom Frinzi: Well, I think as those papers indicate, we had 3 actually come out while we were in Boston, one in particular dealt with the difference between all the various biometers that are out in the marketplace and in a sense created a surgeon or fudge factor that certainly could help surgeons as they make those measurement and lens size selections. We do believe that’s part and parcel of the confidence factor that’s out there. We are working with several independent investigator trials around whether it has to do with AI learning, whether that’s like-to-like, whether it’s using UBM or anterior segment OCT. And I think certainly in the second half of this year, we’ll continue to have more clarity around how that gets to the marketplace, but already doctors are implementing some of the available tools that are available, not necessarily through STAAR, but physician to physician.
And I think that is playing the role in doctors’ confidence growing and their embracing of not only lens-based refractive surgery, but EVO ICL in particular.
Operator: Our next question today comes from George Sellers at Stephens Inc.
George Sellers: Maybe to switch gears back to China. I’m just curious, within your 10% growth expectation, could you just give us some additional detail on what that assumes from the market from the higher net ASP, Patrick, that you mentioned? And then also in the context of your new distributor what’s the expectation for growth in contribution from Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities versus Tier 1 and 2 cities.
Patrick Williams: Yes. We haven’t broken out that detail yet. And I think the way to think about the 10% is really focusing still on the Tier 1 and Tier 2. The opportunity is not just this year and beyond as more of those Tier 3 and Tier 4s. In terms of 10%, look, the market was in Q1, probably in China flat to even down. We don’t have exact science on this, but depending on who you pull, we even heard numbers in the refractive market that might have been down minus 5%, minus 10%. So we clearly continue to take market share. We did see that [indiscernible] reported as a public company, they definitely saw some growth on the top line, but they saw tremendous growth on the bottom line. One could potentially say that there’s a bit of a switch out where refractive is getting moved over to EVO because it is highly profitable for them specifically and for other customers in China.
But I think overall, at 10% look, we’re obviously holding a live. Most of that is unit growth on a year-over-year basis. We did get some good economics out of the 2 distributors as part of the agreement that I mentioned, maybe a couple of hundred basis points of that 10% is related to that. And we’re cautiously optimistic as we enter Q2, which is the beginning of the high season. And of course, the comps become a lot easier in the second half of the year.
Tom Frinzi: And George, I would just add that our decision to add a second distributor was that 1 plus 1 is going to equal a hell of a lot more than 2, and it’s a long-term play, and we’re very pleased with how the second distributor has come up to speed and how both are working together collaboratively and complementing one another. So it’s — we feel we’re very well positioned in that marketplace today and tomorrow.
George Sellers: Okay. That’s really helpful. And then maybe on Europe and more broadly, EMEA, I think you mentioned an opportunity to potentially take some of the commercial initiatives and best practices that you’ve started to develop here in the U.S. and expand those more internationally. I’m just curious how you think about that opportunity, what kind of a difference what some of those particular best practices that you’ve developed or in the U.S. with getting doctors more comfortable with the procedure and the impact that could potentially have on some of your European market growth?
Tom Frinzi: Yes. And again, we’re very pleased with what’s going on in EMEA. Again, a relatively flat market, and we saw nice double-digit growth there. And we do have a similar program called the [indiscernible] if you will. And we’re seeing really nice growth in that select group of accounts, quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. So the Highway 93 in the U.S., obviously, it was very U.S. specific, but we knew it would have tentacles that could be globally applied, and we’re seeing that bear some fruit in Europe as we speak.
Patrick Williams: Yes. I think from a global standpoint, coming back to one of our vital view of focusing on surgeon confidence with the procedure. The papers that we talked about, we take a very global approach with that. One of the key papers that came out was actually authored by the U.S. doctor, a prominent doctor in Europe as well as in China. So you’ll continue to see us take a very global approach. We understand that we are a global company and that we need to make sure that we’re hitting all the KOLs globally in order to move the heat on those key geographies.
Operator: And our next question today comes from Steven Lichtman with Oppenheimer.
Q – Unidentified Analyst: This is Ron on for Steve. Congrats on the great quarter. Just wanted to ask about some of the other U.S. initiatives you talked about in the investor meeting like the call center. How are those going? And are you still pursuing them?
