If I had to summarise optics in 2024 in a single word, I think it would be ‘lobbying’. The past 12 months had associations and retailers lobbying governments like they’ve never lobbied before. And with two bites at the Conservative and Labour cherries, you can’t really blame them.
Work put in by the sector’s key stakeholders during 2023 started to pay off. In February, Labour’s shadow health secretary Karin Smyth told a conference that high street optometry practices would be ‘put to work’ under a Labour government, which at the time was still waiting for a general election to be called.
Unsurprisingly, the plans were welcomed with open arms by the sector. Equally unsurprising, and typical of many party manifestos, was that the plans were bereft of any detail. Even with a Labour government and a secretary of state for health and social care that name drops Specsavers at many an opportunity, and a Prime Minister that loves gifted Lindberg frames, there isn’t much more meat on the bone yet. Let’s hope we’re not still talking about this in 10 years, like we were 10 years ago.
It wasn’t plain sailing in 2024 for lobbyists, who were given a bit of a reality check in April. After being talked up by the conservative government as to their potential in primary eye care, the Westminster powers that be performed the old switcheroo with a 39p increase in general ophthalmic services fees. The Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee at least sounded surprised by describing the increase as ‘derisory’.
When it comes to the most unexpected news story of 2024, there’s only one contender for me – EssilorLuxottica’s big money acquisition of streetwear brand, Supreme. Some would argue that Supreme’s cool was on the wane when it was sold to venture capitalists the first time, but it will be interesting to see how the brand is wrapped up into the EssilorLuxotica portfolio in 2025, especially as all the cool kids wear Palace these days.
