How we arrived at the figures
Where figures were not supplied by the companies involved estimates have been made based on industry contacts, reports or the latest published figures used where comparable. This report is designed to provide a snapshot of the £3bn retail optical market and should not form the basis of any financial decisions.
Optician thanks those companies that made their figures available. Where estimates have been made they have been made in good faith and do not supersede any official figures.
Specsavers
Doug and Dame Mary Perkins pioneered their joint venture partnership model 32 years ago and have since become a familiar sight in UK high streets, offering affordable eye care, in-house brands and now DVLA screening services. Of its 17.3m customers in the UK, 60% are from the NHS. The company is the largest provider of free NHS digital hearing aids. Doug Perkins has repositioned Specsavers to provide more enhanced optical services within its practices. The company now has 1,700 partners in the UK and Republic of Ireland – with 548 in place for at least a decade. Each store is part-owned and managed by its own directors, who are then provided with support services including marketing, accounting, IT and wholesaling.
With each of the Specsavers stores being a joint venture partnership profits are hard to determine. Some insight was provided at the end of the 2012/13 financial year when it was announced group profits fell from £21.3m to £15.3m as the founders Doug and Dame Mary Perkins benefitted from a dividend of £32m for the year.
Leightons
Leightons is investing in redesigning its stores to improve its customer experience. Dedicated training programmes are delivered via Leightons’ Learning Academy, together with tailored CET events. Last year Leightons invested in OCT across the group, and in 2016 it launched its ‘consulting room of the future’. The aim is to upgrade, connect and differentiate the entire clinical experience while integrating optical and audiology.
Leightons has plans to expand its network of 34 stores via a combination of franchising, shared ownership and acquisition. Leightons is currently on a big investment drive and disclosed its profits as £1m-plus. It conducted 88,500 eye exams and sold 61,000 pairs of spectacles during the year. Pictured above is CEO Ryan Leighton.
Tesco Opticians
Tesco Opticians is now in its 17th year of trading. It has 206 stores covering the whole of the UK, offering customers free sight tests for everyone regardless of whether eligible for NHS support or not. It looks to offer an extensive range of designer brands at industry leading retail price points, coupled with an entry price point of £15 for complete single vision glasses and claims it is seeking to boost the customer experience through extensive new product development, updating store environments and staff training.
Scrivens Opticians & Hearing Care
Scrivens is a family-owned business founded by Soloman Scriven in 1938 and now headed up by grandsons Nicholas and Mark Georgevic. Its growth in audiology, thanks in part to providing adult hearing care on behalf of the NHS, prompted a corporate name change to Scrivens Opticians & Hearing Care in 2013. Mark Georgevic is current chair of The National Community Hearing Association. The company continues to grow; its acquisition of Owl Optical Group increased its branch network to 177 branches in England and north Wales. Reports from the year ending 26 October, 2014, showed the company’s pre-tax profits jumped from £1.9m to £2.7m.
Vision Express
This chain opened its first practice in Gateshead, Newcastle in 1988, and was taken over by European optical retail group GrandVision a decade later. Early on it opted for a technical feel and a one-hour glazing offer.
The multiple has since grown its store network, both organically and through acquisitions including the purchase of Batemans, Rayner and Conlons groups. It has increased its emphasis on frames and opted for a high tech mega lab in Nottingham. It has opted for high-profile link-ups with brands such as Oakley, designers such as Julien Macdonald and celebrities such as chef Heston Blumenthal.
It did not provide financial data but it is another group on the acquisition trail. The most recent public figures for the GrandVision-owned chain saw sales up by 11% to £240m and profits down 29% to £12.9m. Public statements on growth made for this year were applied to arrive at its figure.
Black & Lizars
Black & Lizars operates 24 practices in Scotland and one in Belfast. The Glasgow-based company last year celebrated its 185th anniversary.
Black & Lizars claims to be a leader in offering ultra-wide retinal scanning, as well as most recently, the widespread adoption of a digital portal, MySight, which enables patients to easily manage their appointments and check their prescriptions.
The business recently appointed Michelle Le Prevost (left), who previously held senior positions at Specsavers and Oasis Dental Care, as its new managing director.
With a heritage that includes supplying cameras to both Queen Victoria and John Logie Baird as well as giving its many thousands of patients access to leading-edge eyecare, Black & Lizars holds an important position in Scotland’s optometry sector.
Boots Opticians
Since opening its first practice in Nottingham in 1983, Boots Opticians has established itself as one of the big three multiples of optical retailing. In 2009, the company merged with Dollond & Aitchison, combining 250 years of optical experience. As part of the merger all stores started trading under the Boots Opticians brand, providing a range of products and services including eye exams, spectacles and contact lenses. US pharmacy chain Walgreens acquired Boots Opticians owner Alliance Boots for £3.1bn plus shares in 2014 but vowed to keep Boots’ UK operations in Nottingham.
The chain later decided to implement blue light-protection technology for all of its corrective lens solutions, but last year faced ASA complaints about claims it had made in national press advertising. Boots Opticians managing director Ben Fletcher describes Boots as a health-led optician. ‘Customers have a real expectation that health is at the heart of what Boots does given our huge pharmacy heritage and what we are known for,’ he told Optician late last year.
Duncan and Todd
Duncan and Todd is Scotland’s largest independently owned optometrists. In 2015 the company extended its retail reach through the acquisition of 20 20 Opticians – six branches located across Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Incorporating brands including Duncan and Todd, 20 20 Opticians, JM MacDonald and Douglas Dickie, the company aims to provide eye care services in rural and urban locations.
The wider Duncan and Todd Group also incorporates Smart Employee Eyecare – a corporate eye care provider to clients across the UK, as well as Caledonian Optical – a state-of-the-art lens manufacturer which provides a range of digital lenses to customers nationwide. In 2014 Caledonian Optical became the first ophthalmic lens laboratory in Scotland to install a fully-equipped anti-reflection coating facility. The laboratory is also the second largest producer of ARC Lenses in Europe. Pictured is managing director Frances Duncan.
David Clulow
David Clulow is part of Luxottica’s retail arm and has 39 outlets trading under the brand. In the wider David Clulow family are 73 stores including concessions within department stores and sunglass outlets.
David Clulow has positioned itself as a premium optical retailer operating in Ireland and in the UK, predominantly in London and in the south east of England. It has opted for a designer-feel with a range of upmarket brands and a high-tech approach to retailing such as at its Guildford store, which was an early adopter of iPad-based dispensing aids.
Asda
Since starting its store-based opticians network 16 years ago the Walmart-owned supermarket has made a name for itself through aggressive pricing, advertising and marketing. Over the years it has had some spats in the media with Specsavers and Tesco. Asda was one of the early entrants into the online contact lens business and prides itself on its transparent pricing offers. In 2009, Asda Opticians launched complete prices where the price shown includes coatings and high index lenses. This offer was then extended to offer varifocals at the same price as single vision.
Optical Express
This chain was founded in 1991 and is a large-scale provider of laser eye surgery. Optical Express surgeons have treated more than two million people worldwide. The company recently began a programme of CET events. In the past four years it has offered eye care professionals free IOL and refractive surgery. Has undergone restructuring in recent years and its figures include a range of activities outside of traditional retail optics. The figures used are from the most recent available financial results for the year ending December 28 2103. During the period losses at the group reduced from £15.1m to £6.6m.
