Vision Group Holdings, the management company behind two leading Lasik surgery brands, filed for bankruptcy protection and launched a sale process aimed at placing the business into new hands as its surgical centers reopen, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Carrying $160 million in debt, Vision, the holding company operator of the Lasik Vision Institute and TLC Laser Eye Center chains, said that it filed for chapter 11 on Friday over the “temporary and devastating shutdown” of the company’s roughly 120 Lasik centers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In a sworn declaration, interim Chief Executive Lisa Melamed said Vision has fired more than 800 employees, roughly two-thirds of its workforce, when elective surgeries were effectively banned across much of the country. As stay-at-home restrictions are now gradually easing, Vision is hopeful the bankruptcy will provide liquidity to reopen most locations “and pave the way to a successful sale of the company’s assets,” she said.
