Letter: Look beyond the discount

I must remark I was rather taken back by the recent leader from the editor encouraging optical supply shopping around. Although it’s quite true spectacle frame supply has changed beyond all recognition from those distant times when it was anchored around a few British manufacturing enterprises to today’s any spare bedroom or garage being the basis of a frame supply company.

However, to paint lens suppliers with the same brush would seem rather disingenuous. There may be a passing similarity between stock spectacle frames and stock single vision lenses but this quickly changes when you consider bespoke prescriptions. The crucial difference is the word stock, materials pre-made in anticipation of a future order. However, 30% of lens manufacturing is for individual prescriptions (Rx) which cannot even start on their manufacturing journey until an order actually arrives.