On the subject of CIBA Dailies and their supply by Tesco, I too find it hard to believe that even Tesco with its far smaller profit margin, is prepared to sell 30 pairs for the grand profit of £1.46 (excluding P&P). We were guaranteed when we became stockists that we would always receive the best discount available. This, it appears, is not so.
Ignoring the glaringly obvious facts that Tesco is not providing practices where 'their' patients can be checked, or professional staff, then we could reasonably expect them to offer Ciba Dailies at a lower price.
What is inexcusable is Ciba's sudden ability to offer Tesco a more preferential price - I refer to Nigel Burnett Hodd's figures as quoted in optician (July 15).
CIBA Vision's managing director, Howard Barnes, suggests (optician, News, July 22) that we opticians should compete by differentiating in value-added areas, such as customer service and innovation. However, I would point out that we have been providing customer service for years, it is after all opticians who provide the specifications upon which all sales of contact lenses are made.
So we provide a professional service and a retail product - the patient comes in needing contact lenses, and goes out with lenses they can see with, what other innovation should we perform? Seems pretty complete to me.
To say that Barnes and more importantly Ciba Vision has bitten the hand that feeds it would appear to be a monumental understatement here, don't you think?
R H Sessions
Ipswich
On the subject of CIBA Dailies and their supply by Tesco, I too find it hard to believe that even Tesco with its far smaller profit margin, is prepared to sell 30 pairs for the grand profit of £1.46 (excluding P&P). We were guaranteed when we became stockists that we would always receive the best discount available. This, it appears, is not so.