Soft lens value high in the UK

Penetration of contact lenses in the UK and Ireland is one of the highest in Europe but still lags behind Scandinavian countries, according to a market report released this week.

Industry body Euromcontact's annual report on sales in the contact lens and care products market for 2010 shows that 7.6 per cent of the UK and Irish population aged 15-64 years wore contact lenses. Sweden (13.1 per cent), Denmark (11.6 per cent) and Norway (10.1 per cent) came out top of the 31 countries in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region surveyed.

With an estimated value of €230m, up 9 per cent on 2009, soft contact lens market size in the UK and Ireland was the highest of 11 regions within EMEA and represented 18.2 per cent of the total market.