Dutch mail-order group opens talks with Tesco

Although at present the supermarket would be in breach of UK law if it sold contact lenses 'off the shelf', ECD, which entered the UK contact lens mail-order market last month (optician, News, July 24), is pushing for a system by which Tesco could collect orders on behalf of the Dutch company. Jonathan Kuyper, ECD director of professional services, said his company admired the way Tesco had defied the European Court of Justice ruling on 'grey market' products in July. 'We approached Tesco because it demonstrated over the European designer goods issues that it was prepared to challenge unfair legislation,' he said. 'UK law dictates that consumers must buy their contact lenses from opticians and they are charged a premium when they do so. 'In Holland and other countries in Europe people can buy their lenses from whoever offers the best deal, and many retail outlets stock contact lenses,' he added. Mr Kuyper said, 'If the scheme received the go-ahead, Tesco would have a point-of-sale display with order forms for the public to fill in, giving their prescription details. These would be forwarded to Holland with the orders despatched from Eye Care Direct's distribution centre in Farnham, Surrey. 'We hope to grow the market considerably by agreeing a deal with Tesco,' said Mr Kuyper. 'We are successfully selling our contact lenses through the post and already have more than 500 UK customers after one month targeting Britain, but we have approached Tesco because we want a retail channel as well.'