Optical Express places bid for Co-op Eyecare

Optical Express has made a bid to purchase the Co-op Eyecare group. It will be recommended that the board of the Co-operative group accepts the approach when it meets to discuss the matter next week.
Scotland-based Optical Express, which has around 100 outlets nationwide, will gain 34 more branches in England if the deal goes ahead.
A spokesman for the Co-op said: ÔOptical Express has made a favourable offer to purchase Eyecare from the Co-operative group. That will go to the groupÕs board on September 5 with recommendation for acceptance. If the sale is agreed, the business will be transferred to the new owners in September 2001.Õ
Co-op Eyecare has outlets in the north west, south west, Midlands, Yorkshire and the north east.
Managing director of Optical Express David Moulsdale this week confirmed the bid, and said that his staff were being informed about the move.
The last major acquisition for Optical Express was the Specialeyes group which was bought five years ago.
Earlier this year the Co-op group reported that a drive towards a new supply system and cost savings helped its Eyecare division register a £100,000 operating profit during 2000, after it broke even in 1999.
Despite Ôabsorbing heavy losses and costsÕ following a merger with CRS, profits had steadied for the year ended January 13 2001, the group announced.
At the end of last year it was confirmed that the divisionÕs optical laboratory in Devon was to be closed and the manufacture of glazed spectacles was to be outsourced.
No figure for the Optical Express bid has been revealed.