Simon Jones: Equity card

‘So what’s happening with private equity optometry on your side of the pond?’ an American optometrist asked me over lunch at the Transitions Academy conference in Orlando last week.

Luckily, there wasn’t enough time for the long answer, but my quick version went something like this: ‘Groups hoovering up independents. Groups buying groups. Groups trying to vertically integrate with labs. Independents falling by the wayside after trying to compete with each other.’

It was a bleak summary, but one that the veteran optometrist recognised, with the expansion of companies like MyEyeDr in the US, which has been acquiring practices and groups since 2001. MyEyeDr was purchased by Goldman Sachs in 2019 for an estimated $2.7bn and the rate of expansion with its ‘affiliate independents’ has only increased.