Contact lenses can't be sold like baked beans, says CIBA

Contact lenses cannot be retailed like tins of baked beans and the profession should not expect an exodus of contact lens sales to the supermarkets and the internet.
This is the message from Howard Barnes, managing director of CIBA Vision, speaking exclusively to optician on the effects of the Section 60 changes to the contact lens market.
'We are talking about a medical device, not a tin of baked beans,' he said. 'There is no reason why people should see a mass migration across to buy the products at Tescos.'
Nevertheless, he said any changes to the sector should be viewed as an opportunity for eye care professionals, adding there was huge growth potential in the contact lens market. That growth, said Barnes, would only come through opticians fitting new customers.
'We have to make sure that our optician customers are alive and well because they are the ones fitting the lenses. [We won't] do anything to damage that,' he said.
Barnes stated CIBA was committed to working closely with eye care practitioners to make sure they had the structures in place to benefit from the services they supplied.
He said it was difficult to predict how the market would react to Section 60, but he expected changes in the way optical practices charged for their professional services.
'It makes perfect sense,' he commented. And CIBA was drawing up plans to see how it could help educate opticians to this end.
Speaking about the entry of players such as Tesco, Barnes said: 'This will not be a big business driver, the big driver for this market is prescriptions. They [opticians] are the ones with the chairs and they are the ones fitting the lenses.'
Barnes stated CIBA was legally obliged to supply anyone who wanted to retail their contact lenses so long as they worked within the rules.
He said he had no inside knowledge of Tesco's plans and CIBA's pricing policy had not been altered as a result of its entry into the market. This was an issue for the whole of the contact lens industry not just CIBA, he added.
chris.bennett@rbi.co.uk
Full interview in July 1 issue