Johnson & Johnson reported strong second-quarter growth in its Jacksonville-based vision products business and expects more growth with the introduction of a new contact lens.
Johnson & Johnson Vision produces contact lenses at its facility in Jacksonville and produces surgical vision products at other facilities.
The company reported total vision sales rose 4.6%, adjusted for currency fluctuations, to $1.37 billion in the quarter.
Contact lens sales rose 2.9% to $965 million with surgical vision products jumping 8.9%. But in the company’s July 16 conference call with analysts, Johnson & Johnson officials expressed confidence about further growth in contact lens sales.
“In the back half of the year, you’ll also see the launch of the Acuvue Oasys Max 1-Day multifocal for astigmatism,” said Tim Schmid, worldwide chairman of Johnson & Johnson’s MedTech division, according to a company transcript of the call.
“This is the world’s first and only daily disposable lens for people with both astigmatism and presbyopia,” he said.
Johnson & Johnson launched the new lens in June, saying astigmatism affects 50% of the population and causes distorted or blurred vision.
Presbyopia is the gradual loss of near vision, it said.
“We have a deep legacy in developing transformational innovation” in vision products, CEO Joaquin Duato said in the conference call.
“With the Q2 release of the first disposable multifocal lenses for people with astigmatism, we have high expectations,” he said.
“We believe that our vision business will continue to be a mid-single-digit to high-single-digit performer,” said Schmid, referring to percentage sales growth.
Nashville-based Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc., which entered the Jacksonville market in early 2024, reported strong growth in Northeast Florida in its second-quarter report July 15.
Pinnacle said deposits in its Jacksonville offices grew from $28.8 million at midyear 2024 to $76.8 million as of June 30, 2025.
Loans in the market grew from $20.1 million last year to $208.3 million.
Pinnacle Bank has offices at 501 Riverside Ave. in the Downtown Brooklyn area, which is its Jacksonville headquarters, and in Ponte Vedra Beach at 100 Corridor Road.
According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data, those are Pinnacle’s only Florida branches.
Pinnacle reported its total deposits grew by 13% in the past year to $45 billion as of June 30, with loans growing by 10% to $37.1 billion.
The company’s adjusted earnings grew by 37 cents per share from last year to $2 in the second quarter of 2025.
Dream Finders Homes Inc.’s stock has been rising since the Tampa Bay Rays confirmed June 18 that Dream Finders CEO Patrick Zalupski is leading a group seeking to buy the baseball team.
The gains in the stock were in line with increases in homebuilder stocks in the past month and likely unrelated to the Rays news. But Zalupsi’s Dream Finders stake jumped in value from about $1.3 billion on June 18 when the stock closed at $22.10 to more than $1.7 billion when the stock peaked at $29.40 on July 10.
That’s exactly the price Zalupski’s group would pay to buy the Rays, according to reports.
Zalupski, who founded Dream Finders in 2008, controls the equivalent of 59.7 million Dream Finders shares, more than 60% of the company’s stock.
The Rays confirmed in June that Zalupski was leading the group seeking to buy the team but it is not known how much of the purchase price would come from Zalupski.
The group has several other investors, including Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp owner Ken Babby.
Sports publication The Athletic reported July 14 that Zalupski’s group has an agreement to buy the Rays for $1.7 billion from owner Stuart Sternberg and hopes to close the sale in September, but the team would not comment on that report.
Brazilian-based aircraft manufacturer Embraer is worried about a severe impact on its business because of tariffs proposed by Trump.
Trump has threatened a 50% tariff on goods from Brazil and according to a July 20 story by the Financial Times, Embraer CEO Francisco Gomes Neto said that could add $9 million to the price of every plane bought by U.S. airlines.
The newspaper said regional U.S. airlines are the primary market for Embraer’s E175 passenger jets and the U.S. is also its biggest market for executive jets.
Embraer opened a final assembly facility in 2013 at Jacksonville International Airport for a military aircraft called the A-29 Super Tucano.
Neto told the Financial Times its customers might not be willing to pay the additional costs of the tariffs if they take effect and that could force the company to stop production.
Jacksonville-based software firm EPR Fireworks said July 16 it received a strategic growth capital investment from Frontier Growth.
EPR, founded in 2016, provides cloud-based records management and operations software for fire and emergency medical services agencies.
“This partnership with Frontier Growth represents a transformative milestone for EPR,” said Gilad Preger, co-founder and CEO of EPR, in a news release.
“Their strategic support will accelerate our product innovation roadmap, expand our customer success capabilities, and broaden our market reach to serve additional departments with the mission-critical tools they require,” he said.
Frontier Growth is an investment firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Terms of the investment were not announced.