New home for professional bodies

A decision has been taken to sell the joint headquarters of three professional bodies in London and move to the National Resource Centre in Birmingham.

The Association of British Dispensing Opticians (Abdo), the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians and the Federation of Manufacturing Opticians will move from their home at 199 Gloucester Terrace.

Tony Garrett, general secretary at Abdo, said: ‘199 has been a great joint venture between the sector’s leading optical bodies, but the Covid pandemic means we are bringing forward our plans to work differently beyond the traditional London headquarters model. We will all continue to work closely together as we move to new ways of working through and beyond the pandemic.’