On Thursday April 2, 1891, opticians in the UK were presented with a journal that would help them improve their practice, a journal that has been published in an almost unbroken sequence for 125 years.
After researching the optical sector and talking to optician Thomas Dallmeyer in an effort to answer a question sent in by a reader, London newspaper reporter Charles Hyatt-Woolf decided that opticians, along with photographic, mathematical and instrument professionals, needed a weekly recorder of the industry.
Despite some quarters of the optical profession being less than enthusiastic, predicting the title would last no longer than six months, Optician has continued to provide optical professionals with independent news, features and education.
In 1991, the journal celebrated its centenary with a special edition with an in-depth focus on its development and continued success during the first 100 years. Here, along with esteemed members of the optical profession, Optician looks at the milestones of the past 25 years.
The editor’s view
As a new century dawned, Chris Bennett became just the seventh new incumbent of the editor’s chair. He took on the role from Alison Ewbank who had held the post between 1993 and 1999 having succeeded Philip Mullins.
Bennett’s appointment had been delayed by the turning of the millennium. In late 1999 there was panic surrounding the ‘Millennium Bug’ with many convinced computers would simply stop working as the year 2000 dawned, so the new editor was not allowed to leave his previous magazine until its owner was sure it would emerge unscathed.
The character of the market at that time was still being shaped by the fallout from deregulation in the 1980s and it was changing fast. The multiples were growing with Specsavers, Boots, Dollond & Aitchison, Optical Express and Vision Express all well established. These sat alongside the traditional names of the regional chains such as Batemans, Conlons and Rayners. Further pressure was piled on through the noughties as Tesco and ASDA signalled their intention to get into the optical market, each establishing up to 200 practices in a short space of time.
Despite the rapid change in the nature of the retail optical market just one legislative action took place. This was the 2005 Section 60 alteration to the 1989 Optician’s Act covering the dispensing of contact lenses and disciplinary procedures.
The biggest influence over the period was the internet. The rise of the web led to online contact lens sellers exploiting national regulatory structures to sell contact lenses direct to consumers with few, if any, checks on prescriptions. Online spectacles sellers also sprang up, most notably Jamie Murray-Wells’ Glasses Direct. Technology also drove the laser eye surgery business as Lasik became an accessible procedure for many.
Through the early part of this period Optician spread its wings into new areas with the launch of Eyestyle magazine a fashion-forward photo-led monthly which found favour with haute couture frame makers. In the mid-noughties, with CET becoming compulsory, attention turned increasingly to CET led by Optician’s clinical editor Bill Harvey. The journal also published a range of supplements for recruitment, contact lenses, nutrition, retailing, students, optical assistants and optical technicians. It also continued its book publishing ventures.
Optician adopted online technology early and had registered the domain name: optometryonline.net and was offering itself as an internet service provider before the millennium. A CD had been included in a 1999 copy of Optician encouraging readers to use the domain as their email address and to use its internet services. A website, designed to be a global optometry portal was set up with sister company Elsevier shortly after.
Optician, which had pioneered magazine-based distance learning CET, drove its readers online to complete quizzes and became the first provider of multi-media CET. Development of Optician online continued with frequent changes to the website and a new domain: www.opticianonline.net. Smartphones and tablets drove ever more mobile-friendly development of the site. In contrast to many other markets Optician’s print product continued to find favour and the magazine continued to develop alongside the website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and emails. Optician’s then owner appeared to tire of printing magazines and in September 2015 the journal found itself a new home when it was acquired by the Mark Allen Group and a new chapter in its history began.
Contact lenses
It could be said that the history of Optician reflects the history of contact lenses, since August Müller described the first powered contact lenses in 1889 just two years before the first issue appeared.
But the years since each celebrated their centenary have seen an acceleration in contact lens developments that have filled the pages of Optician’s Contact Lens Monthly, the dedicated section that has continued to be an essential reference source on contact lenses throughout those 25 years.
Key developments have been in lens modality, material and design. The first mass-produced disposable soft lenses emerged in 1988 but, by 1995, the introduction of the world’s first daily disposable lenses marked a major leap forward in modality.
Landmark research in the mid-80s – Holden & Mertz defining critical oxygen levels for daily and extended wear, and the Gothenburg study on corneal effects of long-term extended wear – had set the scene for the next key development. But it was not until 1999 that the first silicone hydrogel (SiHy) lenses appeared, initially for 30-nights’ wear and then principally for daily use.
By 2005, daily disposables had overtaken reusables to become the most commonly worn lenses in the UK. The first SiHy daily disposables arrived in 2008 and have gradually gained acceptance. In design, toric and multifocal soft lenses have brought the benefits of contact lens wear to more of our patients.
Soft lenses continue to dominate and rigid lens fittings have declined despite a recent resurgence of interest in corneal shaping and scleral lenses. Manufacturing has been transformed, with the involvement of major multinational companies.
Over the past 25 years, many of the world’s leading researchers and clinicians have reported on these developments in Contact Lens Monthly but some merit special mention. CL pioneer Irving Fatt, who died in 1996, was Optician’s editorial consultant spanning two decades and kept readers informed on the complexities of the oxygen debate.
In 1986, Professors Brien Holden and Nathan Efron together published two early reviews of contact lens complications. Brien and colleagues later contributed a milestone series on extended wear.
Running from 1996-1998, Prof Efron’s 18-part CET series on contact lens complications – also co-published with Butterworth-Heinemann as Optician’s first textbook in 1999 – defined modern thinking on the effects of contact lenses on the eye. And Phil Morgan’s annual surveys on contact lens prescribing have provided a benchmark for trends in UK practice.
Surveys conducted jointly by Optician and the Association of Contact Lens Manufacturers into consumer attitudes to wearing contact lenses, and practitioner attitudes to fitting them, also helped us understand the market better, on issues such as online purchasing and recommendation habits.
Today, Optician continues to serve practitioners and industry with weekly news, as well as monthly education, clinical articles, product reviews, market analysis and meeting reports. It remains essential reading for all who are serious about contact lenses.
If the past 25 years have been a period of rapid change, the next 25 are likely to be even more eventful. Myopia control, drug delivery, and ‘smart’ lenses are just some of the new applications heading our way, taking contact lenses from vision correction into eye treatment, and delivering information and entertainment.
Optician will be at the forefront of developments just as it has been since soon after those very first corrective contact lenses were fitted, way back in 1889.
Frames and fashion
In the 1990s frames grew smaller, ending the Deirdre Barlow era of oversized plastic. Lightweight materials, particularly titanium, dominated and the less breakable nature of so-called ‘intelligent metals’ fuelled a short-lived popularity for rimless spectacles that peaked around the millennium. Even the Queen discarded her Dollond & Aitchison frames for a Silhouette style and, later, one of Lindberg’s. From 2001 all frames had to be CE marked, just when it seemed every child’s desire for a retro Harry Potter-style round eye would permit the shifting of old stock! Fully handmade spectacles, always a luxury, became rarer still, though it was not uncommon to promote frames that had been ‘hand-finished’. Though spectacles were seldom made in Britain, a taste for British-designed frames had added buoyancy to the eyewear industry by the 2010s.
In the Optician centenary issue Brian Such of Birch Designs Limited wrote that UK frame manufacturers were probably ‘facing their Dunkirk’, though ‘excellence’ (of product and service) might achieve the industry’s revival from this low-point. In the event, Napoleon at Waterloo provided the better analogy. Domestic frame-making all but collapsed. The Algha factory in Bow, formerly M Wiseman & Company Ltd, survived as the sole large-scale production line with smaller concerns, including Premiere Optical of Clacton, continuing to manufacture one-off frames and the occasional limited line, sustained by glazing and repair services. The reasons for this nationwide collapse included a failure to respond adventurously enough to the removal of advertising restrictions after 1989, which also fuelled the rise of the multiple optical chains whose pursuit of lower costs frequently outweighed any loyalty to home manufacturers.
For much of the period the supply of eyewear was dominated by the major Italian makers such as Safilo and Luxottica who, largely unbeknown to the general public, controlled many of the most famous, formerly independent, eyewear brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley. Luxottica also owned Sunglass Hut which began trading at Heathrow Airport in 1993. For a while it seemed that branding was everything with all manner of non-traditional names such as Swatch, Laura Ashley, Burberry and Barbour entering the eyewear business under licence. Large logos, typified by that of Chanel were in vogue until some companies reacted with marketing campaigns based on the absence of visible branding, though this did not exclude the possibility of signature motifs such as the Tom Ford T-joint.
Eyewear became increasingly fashion-driven with even ready-readers subject to celebrity endorsement and there were now new ways of identifying trends via social media, but there were also greater opportunities to express individualism via bespoke services such as that promoted by TD Tom Davies, or customisable and component-based frame systems such as that introduced by Kite. Frames were more likely to include options such as anti-allergenic or environmentally friendly materials. It was possible to buy frames made from recycled vinyl records, and a wide choice of natural wood frames hit the market from around 2011 as the traditional problems of adjustment were to some extent overcome.
Online trading would pose further new challenges, the most prominent and controversial provider being Glasses Direct launched in 2004, which began (unofficially) selling ‘designer’ brands such as DKNY the following year. In the past quarter century, however, the phrase ‘designer’ has become largely meaningless. Alternative distinguishing terms have emerged, such as ‘luxury’ or ‘niche’ eyewear, some of it manufactured on a very small scale. Indeed, the non-hyphenated term ‘eyewear’ itself has come of age. No one speaks of a frames industry anymore. The near-ubiquitous use of computers has meant, however, that start-up brands can now compete in a manner previously un-envisaged, for example Banton Frameworks crowd-sourced the funding for its launch in 2015. Frames can now be tried on using virtual dispensing software and can be 3D-printed to order, but the technological revolution did not quite carry all in its wake, as Google’s disastrous launch of ‘augmented reality’ smart glasses demonstrated in 2012-13.
Optical retailing
Two of the major influences on the way high street opticians have run their businesses over the past 25 years are undeniably the growth of the internet and the increase in the number of multiples.
Both factors have undoubtedly kept many a practice owner awake at night
and to greater extent, put practices out of business.
By the early 1990s, multiples were already well established, with Specsavers, Dollond & Aitchison (D&A) and most recently, Vision Express.
In the early 1990s, Vision Express captured the imagination of the British public by offering completed spectacles with an hour. It was the brainchild of Dean Butler, founder of Vision Express in the UK and Lenscrafters in the US. The idea came to Butler after his wife was told that she would have to wait seven days for her glasses. It had proved a great success with Lenscrafters, so onsite labs were developed in Vision Express practices. Today, Vision Express has over 390 practices in the UK and has absorbed established UK optical chains including Batemans Opticians, Crown Eyeglass, Rayner and Keeler and Conlons.
The firms bought by Vision Express have had long trading histories, but none could match that of D&A. The history of the Dollond family can be traced back to 1750, when Peter Dollond opened an optical business in Hatton Garden. The Dollond & Aitchison name was formed when the James Aitchison merged with Dollond & Co in 1927.
The shape of the company began to change in the mid-1960s, when Television Wales and West moved ophthalmic lens production and annexed the photography side of the business. In 1999, the company was bought by eyewear business and part of Alliance Boots, co-owner De Rigo, then sold its manufacturing arm to BBGR in 2001. The name disappeared from the high streets in January 2009, when Alliance Boots announced that it was to form part of Boots Opticians.
D&A’s amalgamation with Boots Opticians meant that the centuries-old company didn’t experience the rise of internet retailing in optics. It was Jamie Murray Wells who took the glasses fight to opticians in 2004 with the launch of Glasses Direct, the first online prescription glasses retailer. Murray Wells said he was staggered by the £150 cost of glasses and so set out to try to find the real cost of a pair of spectacles.
In the years that followed, Murray Wells made few friends with the established optical businesses and indeed regulators, once describing the GOC as an ‘organisation riddled with commercial influence’. He also famously sent sheep in a Newcastle Specsavers to demonstrate how patients were being ‘fleeced’.
Online contact lens retailing has been a major bone of contention for more than a decade, with retailers using regulatory loopholes to supply contact lenses in the UK without prescription checks. Other retailers, such as Daysoft Contact Lenses and its founder Ron Hamilton have championed online contact lens sales to the public with a novel price point while paying close attention to its regulatory obligations. Like Murray Wells, Hamilton has also had mixed feelings on the GOC, questioning its impartiality.
Optometric equipment
Since Bill Harvey first started in practice in the early 1990s, there have been significant changes in optometry, many driven by the advance in instrumentation brought about by digitisation. Digital capture of information had allowed large amounts of information to be timecoded, stored safely, made available for analysis and interpretation, to be enhanced or processed for improved assessment, backed up for safety, and enabled it to be transferred securely when others need to be involved in any particular clinical situation.
Imaging has been the area most affected by this revolution. Retinal (and indeed anterior or external) photography was considered something of a specialised luxury in those days. If your clinic had access to a retinal camera, it was in effect a desk-top unit with an analogue camera attachment. Most patients required dilation for adequate intraocular imaging and, even with a large pupil, good image quality was not assured (Figure 1 is a typical example). Digital capture, with light being focused onto an electronic chip of ever increasing pixel number (over 200 megapixels is now typical) allowed for digital representation that was not only simple to capture (non-mydriatic cameras are now standard in pre-screening areas and operated by auxiliary staff with minimal training) but capable of storing images for further analysis. Disc could be compared at one time on screen (Figure 2), be presented in a way allowing stereo-viewing, annotated or measured to allow structural change to be monitored (as for example when assessing choroidal patches of pigmentation for growth), and enhanced by changing colour signals (as when, for example, the red channel is reduced to highlight the contrast of blood).
[CaptionComponent="2576"]Early attempts at direct measurement of layered structures, such as attempted by the Zeiss GDx technique based on polarimetry or the early Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph assessing the three dimensional structure of optic discs, developed alongside the early time domain versions of optical coherence tomographer (OCT), such as the Zeiss Stratus. The introduction of a spectral domain OCT in the late 1990s offered high resolution cross-sectional assessment of layered structures, such as the retina, disc and cornea, in a format that later tracking technology allowed the practitioner to detect even minimal structural change that might indicate early diseases such as glaucoma. OCTs developed to become easy to operate (and are now often found in pre-screening areas) and with greater functional capability, such as the ability to assess the anterior angle, to show serial change as difference maps and to correlate with fields assessment to indicate the impact of structural changes upon function of the tissues being assessed. More recently still, swept source OCT is offering better viewing of the deeper structures such as choroid and there is also a recent move to use OCT data as a means of looking at changes in blood flow to provide an OCT angiography technique that avoids the invasive need for injection of fluorescein (Figure 2). This is likely to become big news for the profession in the next few years.
Optometrists are increasingly using other techniques (topography, pachymetry, microperimetry among many) to enhance their role in primary care and are in a good position to support the secondary care sector with a more reliable triage and primary care service.
Ophthalmic lenses
The lens and lab world has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. While the 1970s saw the adoption of CR39 as the standard lens material in the UK, the 1990s saw the widespread use of higher index lens materials in 1.6, 1.67 and 1.74. Then in 2006 Tokai launched its 1.76 in Japan which remains the highest index organic lens material currently available.
PPG’s introduction of Trivex in 2003 as an alternative to Polycarbonate (but with better optical qualities) had only modest impact in the UK, but it is interesting to note that one major UK optical chain is now offering this material as standard in children’s spectacles.
With the advent of higher index lens materials came the greater need for anti-reflection coatings and over the past quarter of a century the array and quality of coating options has vastly improved. Early single-layer coatings transmitted 96% of light. Later two-layer coatings transmitted 97%, and the current generation of multi-layer coatings can now transmit as much as 99.5% of light.
More recent coating innovations include those to limit the effects of potentially damaging blue light and it will be interesting to see how this area develops with the increasing use of light-emitting devices.
In 1991, a new name to the market, Transitions Optical, started manufacturing lenses in Pinellas Park, Florida and for the first time spectacle wearers could buy lightweight plastic photochromic lenses. Fast forward 25 years and photochromic lenses are now offered in numerous colours and indices in virtually every lens design possible, thanks to the introduction of FreeForm technology.
While CR39 progressives had been introduced in the 1970s and by the 1990s were offered in over 100 different designs, few people appreciated the major impact that FreeForm would have on optical dispensing and manufacturing.
During the 1980s and 1990s the use of computer numerically controlled (CNC) cutting and polishing was developed for the production of progressive lens moulds, then in early 2000 both Rodenstock and Zeiss brought new lens products to market manufactured using this latest ‘state of the art’ technology.
FreeForm has been the real game-changer in the industry as digital-point technology means each and every point on a lens can be unique. Within the same manufacturing process an optical surface can now be both atoric and aspheric, or simply spherical or toric if desired. It is now possible for the surface geometry of the lens to be altered in almost limitless ways.
As a result, the design parameters of a progressive lens – such as corridor height/width, and reading area – can be personalised to meet the unique visual task requirements and lifestyle needs of individual patients, in contrast to conventional PAL design where progressive designs were simply moulded on the front surface.
The edging sector has developed at pace since 2000 mainly due to the innovative approach of MEI Systems from Italy, whose edgers, including the most recent TBA (throw the block away) ‘all in one’ system, have rapidly become the equipment used by all volume surfacing labs.
While many things in the lens supply sector have changed it is comforting to know that customers still value the personal service they can obtain from the UK’s independent labs.
Specsavers: growth of the green machine
In 1991 when Optician was celebrating its centenary, Specsavers had a total of 129 stores in Great Britain and the Channel Islands and an annual turnover of
£70 million.
Today it has 708 optical stores in the UK, 50 in the Republic of Ireland, 429 in the Netherlands and the Nordics and 370 in Australia and New Zealand. Annual turnover for the group as a whole in 2014/15 was £2.06 billion, of which the UK contributed £1.2 billion.
The key themes during the past 25 years have been growth and innovation, professional development, customer service and partnership.
As well as a steady increase in optical stores, Specsavers opened its first hearing care store in 2002 and is now the leading high street provider of adult audiology services to the NHS. In 2013 the company moved into domiciliary care following the acquisition of Healthcall and now has nationwide coverage, provided by 45 joint venture partnerships.
International expansion has been high on the list of priorities since 1997, when the company opened its first store in the Netherlands. Between 2004 and 2008 it expanded into the Scandinavian countries, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. The experience has brought benefits to the UK side of the business in terms of a global supply chain, clinical and retail innovation, and development opportunities for joint venture partners and support for office colleagues.
Since 1995 Specsavers has run the PAC, an annual clinical conference, which became the largest of its kind in Europe. The company is the largest employer of registered optometrists and dispensing opticians in the UK (around 3,500) and runs an extensive pre-reg programme. Since 1996 it has published a monthly clinical magazine providing CET for its professional staff.
In 2002 Specsavers was voted the Most Trusted Brand of Opticians by Readers Digest, and in January 2016 the UK Customer Satisfaction Index named Specsavers as the number one high street retailer for customer satisfaction in the UK.
The joint venture partnership model has increased significantly. There are currently more than 1,200 partners in the UK and Republic of Ireland, of which over 500 have been with the group for at least 10 years.
The Voice of optics
[CaptionComponent="2577"]David Hewlett, Fodo chief executive
It is a tremendous pleasure to be part of Optician magazine’s 125th Anniversary celebrations. Fodo is a much younger kid on the block with roots only going back eighty years but, during that time, Optician has been staple reading for Fodo members and the wider profession.
Over 125 years it has seen off all competitors and rightly so. It is the one magazine in optics that you read as soon as it arrives to find out what is happening in the optical sector.
Its online presence is often our primary source for independent and unbiased news and its CET and CPD offerings are first rate.
Combine that with the Optician Awards and Optrafair and you have a magazine at the very heart of the sector which continues to stimulate and challenge us in equal measure – just as it should.
Congratulations to everyone past and present at Optician and here’s to the next 125 years.
[CaptionComponent="2578"]Samantha Peters, General Optical Council chief executive and registrar
We have always found Optician extremely valuable in keeping up to date with the optical world. It has always been essential that we fully understand the professions we regulate and the way they’re changing. The wealth of news and views in each week’s Optician plays a key part in us doing that.
For us Optician is also a useful channel for us to get messages out to readers, whether it’s something simple like not missing the annual retention deadline, or more detailed analysis of major changes to CET, our standards or other GOC policies. We know as well that a lot of registrants find the CET provision to be invaluable. We look forward to continuing to work with Optician for years to come.
[CaptionComponent="2579"]Fiona Anderson, president, Association of British Dispensing Opticians
Congratulations to Optician for providing news and information to the optical profession for 125 years, this is a unique milestone. It’s astonishing to think that the journal was already 34 years old when the Association of Dispensing Opticians (ADO) was founded in 1925 and had been going for 95 years when the ADO was superseded by the foundation of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (Abdo) in 1986 (also the year that I qualified).
In more recent years Optician has become a useful source of CET and has developed online, but the ongoing tradition of looking at the job pages as soon as it arrives by post is still alive and well.
Thanks for the features that have assisted and promoted dispensing opticians over the years. Let’s hope Optician continues to thrive and serves the profession for another 125 years and attains its quarter-century in 2141.
Chris Hunt, chair, Optical Confederation
[CaptionComponent="2580"]What the optical sector needs most is up-to-date information and friends who are prepared to be critical when needed – and Optician has been a trusted part of the sector delivering both over 125 years. The magazine has charted the major challenges and changes over the years while also tracking the latest eyewear and equipment trends, business realities and regulatory developments along the way.
As we go through another period of major change – with a big push to deliver more eye care in the community and respond to the challenges set out in the Foresight Project Report – Optician must continue to deliver news to the optical frontline but just as importantly must hold sector leaders to account for the choices we make.
I very much hope that the Optician will continue to flourish and stimulate us for another 125 years.
Mary-Ann Sherratt, president of the College of Optometrists
[CaptionComponent="2581"]On behalf of the College of Optometrists, I would like to extend my congratulations to Optician on celebrating 125 years of publication, during which it has been a supporter of the College and its antecedent organisations. The College values the objective reporting provided by the journal on industry matters and we regularly use it as a means of engaging with the broader profession, including sharing the College’s view on optometric issues in our regular column.
At a time of change in the role of optometrists, in the organisation of service delivery and the potential for the use of new technology, the profession is ever more reliant on the most up-to-date information relating to practice and clinical matters being presented in ways that are both independent and balanced.
We wish Optician continued success.
Edward Middleton, master of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers
[CaptionComponent="2582"]The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, the oldest established optical body in the world, sends many congratulations to Optician on reaching this landmark 125th anniversary.
Our position within optics means that we take a wide view and it is good to see the breadth in each edition of Optician – from career moves to the latest clinical developments, there is something for everyone.
From the vantage point of our office, so close to Fleet Street, we have a daily reminder of the way in which technological progress has changed the business landscape. The Foresight Project Report has shown very clearly that the optical sector must take up a similar challenge and we are delighted that Optician will be there to comment on progress.
It has safely navigated its way through its first 125 years – now on to the next 125.
Optician would like to thank the following for their help and expertise: Margaret McGovern in the College of Optometrists library and College MusEYEum curator Neil Handley; former Optician editor Alison Ewbank; Waterside Laboratories managing director Bob Forgan; the GOC, Abdo, Fodo, the College and the WCSM
