Event report: Sight Care conference

Marketing and social media has for too long been considered a young person’s game.

However, the Sight Care business conference 2017 rallied independents of all ages to view social media as everyday communication and join forces rather than compete.

One of the highlights was a keynote address by Pim Föster, commercial manager of Dutch independent support partnership Optitrade Retail Group.

He told Sight Care Group members on February 27 that many of the challenges they faced were familiar to his own experience in the Netherlands.

‘We have to do things together against the chains. Opticians should work together as local specialists,’ he said.

Around 60% of the Netherlands’ 2,214 optical practices were still independent. However, sales volumes were falling, especially for spectacle frames and daily contact lenses. Value of sales were standing strong, with the cost of an average dispense in Dutch independents almost double the price of the multiples.