Review of the year in optics

January
Vision Express sets itself a target of 100 more joint venture outlets in the next five years 
A Wirral-based business, Spectacle Warehouse, wins thousands of pounds from a DTI scheme to develop a rimless spectacle frame
French frame firm Airess folds
Record crowds attend Opti Munich
Scotland's Eyecare 3000 event offers participants more choice
New GOS regulations are to be amended, say the optical bodies
Boots plc axes 900 head office jobs, including Boots Opticians boss Norman Usher who will leave the company in March

February
Bausch & Lomb launches a six-month drivers' vision awareness campaign with the British School of Motoring
MP Dr Ashok Kumar questions efractive surgery prices in the UK at the House of Commons, and points out that the National Care Standards Commission had claimed regulations and guidelines of inspection of clinics were 'loose, woolly and open to interpretation'
Another MP, Frank Cook, aims to 'highlight the cowboy behaviour of some clinics' before a parliamentary public forum on the safety of refractive surgery
ABDO presses health secretary Dr John Reid on the lack of financial support dispensing opticians are to receive when CET becomes compulsory in 2005