Globalisation is inevitable but we need to be ready for it. Expect more overseas brands, more overseas ideas and more diversity on the high street.

Practitioners in Sweden must be quaking in their fur-lined boots at the thought of having Specsavers enter their market, given that the multiple's opening gambit was to say that it wanted to double the size of the group and bring low prices to the region.
The move follows Luxottica's acquisition of OPSM in Australia and a stake in Clulow, while De Rigo's ownership of Dollond & Aitchison has been long-standing. Foreign ownership is nothing new to Vision Express, its current owner Grand Vision's pan European approach has seen major changes made at Vision Express and even the smaller players have got in on the act with Inspecs eyeing retailers in the US.
Moves have already been made in stock lens making by Hoya to relocate production from the UK to the Far East and by Rodenstock to move surfacing work to Eastern Europe from Germany. Earlier this month Frank Norville warned UK prescription houses that they too could be under threat from cheap overseas competition.
But their time will come. The frame making business has gone global, the retail business is becoming global, and the prescription business is seeing the first signs of globalisation. European Union expansion will open up the optometry profession and the impact of that expansion could be felt as early as this summer. Globalisation is inevitable but we need to be ready for it. Expect more overseas brands, more overseas ideas and more diversity on the high street.
Some may argue that the UK has less to lose than other territories in all this change. The UK is famous for its eclecticism, drawing on themes and tastes from other markets is our strength.
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