Multiple counts cost of retail downturn

It has emerged that Dollond & Aitchison's decision to make its 90 contact lens opticians redundant followed a weaker half-year performance by the multiple.

De Rigo, the Italian parent of the UK opticians name, has released sales performances for the first six months of this year, in the run-up to July's redundancy announcement by D&A.
 

The figures also revealed that D&A's 140 franchised outlets had a weakened performance, at €32.3m, a fall of 8 per cent on 2005 (a decline of 5.6 per cent in sterling terms).
At June 30 2005, D&A's network extended to 235 owned outlets as well as its 140 franchised businesses.