The year started quite well with turnover in January just holding up over last year; eye examinations, higher value spectacles and contact lenses all exceeded values for 2004. However, February has fallen behind some way with all benchmarks with the exception of new contact lens fits dropping below the results for February 2004.
Annual growth is positive for turnover alone and turnover per eye examination is still high. However, the growth rate for turnover at 2.7 per cent is the lowest since December 2001, following a particularly hard trading year.
While results look bleak compared to January and last February, all figures exceed the values reported over the last quarter of 2004, and it should be noted that February 2004 was a particularly good month for all the practice performance benchmarks.
Eye examinations show negligible change from last month, and decrease by 8 per cent from last February. Overall the trend in eye examinations is steady, with the last 12 months showing an average 6 per cent fall compared to the previous period.
The proportion of NHS eye examinations has increased again, up from 62.1 per cent last February to 65.2 per cent.
The total volume of dispensing has decreased by 7 per cent this month, down 11 per cent from February 2004.
There is little change in the volume of single-vision dispensing this month from January, but all types of lenses fall by around 11 per cent from last year, resulting in a further decline in the growth of spectacle dispensing to -10 per cent on average over the year.
The volume of reflection-free coatings is down by 13 per cent from January's figures, down 23 per cent from February 2004. Growth rate is still suffering, falling by 26 per cent over the last 12 months compared to the previous year. The proportion of spectacles having an AR coating is 45 per cent, less than last February's 47 per cent.
Dispensing rate is 68 per cent, no change from January, and down from 69.3 per cent 12 months ago. The dispensing rate is calculated from total number of eye examinations and total dispensing, and hence does not take into account multiple dispenses.
New contact lens fits have fallen by almost 6 per cent from January, but show an increase of 2 per cent from February 2004. The annual growth is still negative by 2 per cent, whereas the previous year was positive by 7 per cent.
Solution sales show negligible change from last month or last February. Overall, the annual trend is negative by almost
1 per cent.
Total practice turnover results are down 4 per cent from January, down 3 per cent from last February. This is not unusual. There were occasions last year in November (-12 per cent) and over the summer when turnover fell behind the previous year's results. The average for the year is still positive at just under 3 per cent. The differential is smaller and diminishing, and it would not be surprising if growth became negative as it did in 2001.
Turnover per eye examination is 129, down slightly from January, but up by
6 per cent from last February.
When comparing your practice with the results it is important to note that all our figures are equated to a 25-day month, so year on year, month on month we can compare equal time periods. February had 24 working days (excluding Sundays and UK Bank holidays).
If a practice would like to contribute to the Index please contact Louise Jarvis on 01622 851726, to discuss the benefits, no obligation, or by email to l.jarvis@businessbenchmarks.co.uk.
New contributors to the Index are always welcomed. Benefits of participation include customised graphs and comparisons, and contributors are able to make ad hoc enquiries, receiving feedback and results entirely free of charge. There is also the opportunity to benchmark other aspects of practice management or sales against the whole sample. The service is completely confidential.
BOXTEXT: On balance the contributors are feeling neither positive nor negative about the coming year, with 63 per cent feeling that 2005 will be much the same as 2004.
Since the start of the year, trading has been variable and inconstant, so some respondents have mooted that the year may be worse than 2004, despite their initial hopes.
One comment from an independent sole trader was that the number of spectacles dispensed is down due to increasing time spent on eye examinations, and spending longer with each patient, meaning that numbers of appointments have had to be reduced.
Added-value dispensing also seems to have peaked. The graph shows the proportion of spectacles dispensed with an AR coat as an example. The graph shows a peak in mid 2003 and percentages are seen to be falling after that.
Combined with the fall in volumes of dispensing, indexed values are showing a fall in the region of 26 per cent for AR coats over the year.
BOXTEXT: High street feels the chill
If you've noticed a downturn in business for the month of February you are not alone.
While national newspapers report a 1.7 per cent drop in sales for non-food stores over the first three months of this year, the optical industry in particular finds itself a full 10 per cent down on last year. As Frank Norville, chairman of the FMO advisory panel, said: 'Why today, when healthcare is booming and doctor's surgeries and hospitals are bursting at the seams?'
Norville thinks several factors could explain it. 'Certainly during February there was a cold weather snap, which never helps optical demand,' he said.
'Also, 50 per cent of people over 50 years of age - the spectacle buying majority - absent themselves from the UK throughout the winter to go skiing or to the sun.'
He also wonders whether the downturn is an effect of taxation reducing retired people's spending power.
Much more worrying, believes Norville, is the number of optical customers reading newspapers or watching TV documentaries about opticians ripping consumers off. 'Let us hope their loss isn't Glasses Direct's gain,' he said.
Norville doesn't hold much hope for the coming months either: 'It's a certainty we will not find March or April 10 per cent higher than last year. We are going to be disrupted with an early Easter and the general election up until May. All told we are facing a very disruptive start to the 2005 demand.'
All benchmarks but one are down in relation to 12 months ago