Record group sales revenue of £2.01bn has been reported Specsavers’ 2014-2015 annual review. It was the first time that the group has broken the £2bn revenue barrier and a 9.1 per cent increase on the figures from 2013-2014.
At £1.16bn, the group’s highest revenue was in the UK, ahead of Australia with £375m and the Netherlands, where this year the group became the country’s second largest optics operator, at £99.5m.
Specsavers revealed that it carried out more than 9m eye tests in the UK and increased its customer base by 7.5 per cent. Optics sales grew by 6 per cent and contact lens increased by 8.5 per cent – with over 1m contact lens patients enrolled on its direct debit scheme. Having rolled out its joint venture partnership model to Healthcall in 2013, the number of domiciliary JVP territories increased to 35. Store numbers increased by 27 to 297 with 261 relocating or rebranding.
In the children’s eyewear market, sales of frames increased by 9 per cent over the course of the year, but had increased by 27 per cent in the last three years.
Worldwide, Specsavers sold more than 17m frames, 374m contact lenses and 221,000 hearing aids, with its registered customer base moving past 31m.
The group highlighted the introduction of a new global supply chain as one of the key achievements over the course of the. Record levels of production saw 37m lenses supplied, coating 15.4m of them, and glazing 6.2m pairs of glasses. It said the growing business meant that the supply chain needed to evolve to meet increased customer demands. A new product data system now stores all data for frames, ophthalmic lenses and contact lenses now sitting in one, central place – leading to faster product supply.
Manufacturing and distribution in the UK has also been ramped up, with nine coating machines modified to increase capacity. Surfacing productivity has also increased, with three new surfacing cells - smaller work stations that use conveyors to link taping, blocking, surfacing and washing.