Optician Index: December 2010: Big freeze hits sales

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The year finished much as it started, with extreme weather conditions once again bringing the country to a standstill and affecting sales in the optical retail sector in the run-up to Christmas.

Figures reported by the British Retail Consortium have shown that the snow, concerns over job security and the general state of the economy have resulted in a sales decline of 0.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis, compared with December 2009. As the UK's largest retailers begin to report their Christmas trading figures there have been mixed results, but the UK retail optical market has seen a more significant fall in sales of almost 9 per cent from December 2009.