Sight Care Group has announced that its ophthalmic frames division Sight Care Trading will cease business on July 31 with an expected closure by the end of September.
Four full-time employees and a part time member of staff will lose their jobs.
The group’s chief executive Paul Surridge said an outright sale of the company had been sought for the past 12 months. He thought a deal was likely but it failed to materialise.
He said: ‘The business was first established over 20 years ago. The plan was to market frame collections on an exclusive basis to our membership and for well over a decade the business generated meaningful profits for the group, however, the policy from day one of restricting distribution to members only proved to be an Achilles Heel over time as the market became more competitive.
‘Marketing frames has never been a core activity for Sight Care, but whilst profits were being generated that could be re-invested in projects to support members we were content.’
Sight Care Group had entered into serious discussions last November with a third party to sell the trading division and house brands.
‘In the final analysis that didn’t come to pass in the way we envisaged,’ Surridge added. ‘Our board, in considering our group strategy for the next five years decided that as an outright buyer was not forthcoming this division of the group should cease to trade, however, discussions are ongoing about establishing a “collaborative arrangement” with the third party that would enable our house brands to remain available and indeed see the brands evolve over time. Our shareholders were informed this week of the board’s decision.’
The ‘third party’ supplier could not be disclosed by Sight Care.
‘Decisions to close a business are never easy, especially when it affects loyal employees that have served the company well,’ added Surridge.
The move does not affect parent company Sight Care Services, which runs meetings, networking, training, mentoring and PR, or its other subsidiaries Optical California and Vision Enhancers.