Protecting practices against the cost-of-living crisis

As businesses across the UK feel the effects of by economic fallout, either from UK or worldwide political decisions, optical practices have implemented changes to avoid worst case scenarios around energy bills, employee retention, patient satisfaction and long-term business resilience. Optical practices have indicated that having a proactive rather than a reactionary business approach during the cost of living crisis will ensure practices can withstand further hardships.

Peter Telfer, managing director at Urquhart Opticians, summarised the extent of the situation felt by many: ‘The cost of living crisis has had a number of impacts on our business. Patients are broadly more hesitant to change spectacles, team members are experiencing rising costs at home and, therefore, wage pressure is being created, and the costs of operating our business have increased.’