Challenges and opportunitiesOptimeyes have been resilient, surviving and growing from a very small base. However, asthe company considered its marketing strategy for 1993 and succeeding years, a number ofmajor challenges and opportunities had to be assessed.The Irish market for ophthalmic productsVery limited information was available on the Irish market. Sales of Opthalmic productstended to be very seasonal, highest in January, May and September and lowest in March,June and December. Spectacles were considered to be the dominant product with salesestimated to be about 1 million units per year. Contact lenses gained in importance during thelate 1980s but sales in 1989 were still a mere 32 000 units, worth IR £ 489000. Thus, just over3 per cent of all those requiring optical assistance in Ireland chose contact lenses comparedwith, for example 10 per cent in the United States. A higher percentage of women than menchose contact lenses.There was no published information on the value of the Irish market. The Household BudgetSurvey of 1987 did not assess the levels of expenditure on ophthalmic products in Ireland.However, the figures were available for optician's fees, which normally represent between 15 and20 per cent of the income of optometrists. In 1987 the average expenditure per household perweek on optician's fees was IR £ 0.102.With the exception of the United Kingdom and France there is very little information availableon the composition of market demand for ophthalmic products throughout Europe. Ireland isno exception but is considered to resemble the UK market. Details of demand patterns in theThe UK are included in Table 29.2 C. The demographic structure of the Irish market is outlined inTable 29.3 C.The financial statements for the year ending Optimeyes of 1991 are included in Table C 29.4.Company sales had increased strongly in 1992, exceeding figures for the previous year byapproximately 51 per cent.Market trendsA number of trends in the business internationally were also worthy of note. Spectacles hadbecome fashionable and were no longer an object which people disliked wearing. Manyconsumers, particularly in France and Germany, owned several pairs of spectacles, whichwere colour co-ordinated with different outfits. In 1992 figures showed that Irish consumers,on average, still owned only one pair of spectacles per person compared with three or four insome European countries. A further illustration of this fashion trend was that people withperfect eyesight were wearing spectacles, typically with clear lenses. Creating an image canbe done as easily with spectacles as any other fashion item and magazines have described anumber of looks, from the Saturday night ' relaxed ' look to the ' rock star ' look and the ' casuallook '. As a result, the market was expected to grow for two reasons: customers would want toown more than one set of spectacles, and, as fashion colours change, consumers woulddiscard old frames. It was generally agreed that the replacement and/or multiple purchases ofoptical aids was one of the few areas of potential growth in the industry in the developedworld.The price of Opthalmic products continued to be driven down. Readyspex, a UK retailer ofready-made reading glasses based in Blackburn, sourced products in Taiwan which it retailedfor £ 2.99 a pair. The ultimate expression of spectacles as a convenience product was thelaunch of a spectacles vending machine by Readyspex in 1990. The machine allows thecustomer to select one of five ranges of frames and then choose which of nine differentcorrective strengths is most appropriate, before inserting money into the machine andpressing the button. Samples of the design are affixed to the side of the machine in order toallow customers to try on the spectacles with mirrors available. Readyspex believed that themachines would become popular in airports, supermarkets, libraries and other outlets, wherepeople may suddenly realize that they need a spare pair of spectacles.The rise of multiple optical chains and more recently of superopticals was another importantthe trend in the industry. Throughout the EU and EFTA (European Free Trade Area) countries,optical chains tended to be regional rather than national or international and were generallyprivately owned companies with about 20 outlets. However, in the USA the superoptical hadbecome a nationwide phenomenon with some 1200 scattered throughout the country. Asuperoptical store is a large Opthalmic practice where a customer can undergo a sight test,Select a frame and can watch the lenses being glazed and surfaced at the print-shop laboratory;the customer receives new spectacles usually within one hour of the sight test result.Superopticals traded on the basis of convenience, comfort, speed, efficiency and quality andwere becoming very successful throughout Europe.
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