Optics Newsletter
Mid-market squeezed in struggling frames market
Q311 has seen value sales in the spectacle frames market decline by 9.3 per cent as compared to Q310. The decline suggests hard pressed consumers have been increasingly looking to reduce expenditure in the category, the methods available to do this being either delaying purchases or buying a cheaper product.
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April sales drive Q2 2011 performance
Mixed is probably the best word used to describe the Great British summer of 2011, which is unlikely to be remembered as a particularly good one. With summer being almost over the exceptionally warm spring now seems like a distant memory. According to the MET office April 2011 has been the warmest and sunniest April on record for the last 100 years with half the usual rainfall. As the record breaking spring set a promising outlook for the summer, sales of sunglasses peaked early this year.
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Frames are declining, but contact lenses and care products driving growth
Frames are the only segment of the market down year on year. Comparing figures for the frames market Q1 2011 vs. Q1 2010 there is a slight decline in both volume and value. Volume dropped by 3% against the same quarter last year and value by 2% resulting in a slight increase in average price in the market (+1% in Q1 2011 against last year, recording at £68.10). Total sales of frames (volume) in the Opticians channel in Q1 11 were 3.16m units.
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Frames and Sunglasses Sales Improving in 2010
Analysing the trends in the Frames market we can see that stability has returned during the year of 2010. The volume declined only by a fracture, -0.3% (2009-10) compared to -4.5% in 2009 (2008-09). A slight decline in average price in the market (-1.9%, £67.50 in 2010) has led to a value decline of -2.2% compared to – 6.9% the year before.
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Contact Lenses: Growth and Si-Hy
Despite the current economic climate, the UK contact lenses market is in fact growing, rising +5.1% year on year* (YoY) in value terms. Disposables account for 97% of the contact lenses market, and are up by +5.3% in value YoY. With 60p in every £1 spent on traditional hydrogel lenses, this segment represents the largest part of the disposable contact lenses market.
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