Lenses continue to underpin the European optical market while licensed brand frames and sunglasses suffer as new designers and house brands command more of the market.
According to market research company GfK the European market for optical goods is holding up with growth in Germany and France but decreases in Italy and Spain.
Presenting its findings on the European big four of Germany, France, Italy and Spain, GfK’s head of spectacle research Giampaolo Falconio said the market remained stable in the first half of 2013 with sales of €7.3bn just 0.7 per cent up on the same period last year.
While most European economies had a negative outlook, Falconio said there were clear areas of growth within the optical market that optical practice could take advantage of. Despite the UK not being in the group considered, he said the same trends held true for the UK optical market.
He said GfK’s process of collecting data from practices on a monthly basis allowed it to pick up on those trends to identify areas of growth. Optics was a competitive arena in a tough economic climate but there were opportunities, he said.
GfK estimated that lenses represented about 60 per cent of practice business by value. This sector was also seeing the greatest growth, said Falconio. Lenses grew 4 per cent compared to falls of 2 per cent in frames, 7 per cent in sunglasses, while contact lenses were static. He said by analysing the growth and value in different sectors, practices could tailor the type of products they offered to maximise profits. The biggest area of growth was in trade brands (+19 per cent) which represented products with an average selling price of €120 to €200. ‘The message for opticians is that people will spend money on own brands.’
Looking deeper into particular trends he said plastic, geeky or hipster frames were growing by 14 per cent but in the own brand sector this growth was 39 per cent. Elsewhere top-brand sunglasses and couture frames were suffering (-16 per cent in France) as new designers, artisan producers and original designs (up 30 per cent in Italy) were growing. ‘It is the same effect as hand-sewn clothes,’ he said. ‘We need to change our approach to customers.’ These original designs also had the ability to command higher prices that licensed brands, he added.