Specialist Lenses: The Key to Contact Lens Growth?

While the extreme weather conditions may have factored in the strong decline of the Frames market (-14.2%, Jan09-10), the growth of +3.0% during January for Contact Lenses indicates this Optical Sector has proven more resilient to such conditions. Could the significance of Mail Order schemes in the UK Contact Lens market have been a driving factor behind this greater stability?

The performance of Contact Lenses in January has been a key driver behind the +2.8% growth during Q1 10 (value GBP, Q109-10) and resulted in the Contact Lenses sector sustaining the increased share of Opticians’ value sales gained last year. During 2007 for every £100 of value sales gained from Frames, £39 of Contact Lenses sales were achieved. In 2008 this rose to £42 and last year this ratio closed further with £47 of Contact Lens sales to every £100 of frames (Opticians Channel). The first quarter of 2010 has seen contact lenses maintain this performance, with Opticians recording £101.3 million contact lens sales over this three month period against the £217.0 million Frames value (Q1 10).