Consolidation has been steady for some time now, as companies look for ways to pool their resources, capabilities, products and services to create efficiencies and leverage value to their customers and clients.

 
Marge Axelrad
Editorial Director
One important element of optical’s consolidation has been the “integrated” model, when suppliers move into distribution, directly controlling retail or lab services or managed vision care programs while they continue to market product lines and services to independent accounts. Or, it’s worked the other way, when companies involved in distribution or retail or managed care bring in lab or product services to serve their own network or some clients outside.

In different ways, Luxottica/Eyemed, Highmark/Davis/Viva and, on the lens/lab side, Essilor, Hoya and Carl Zeiss are examples of these. And now we have another (very) big deal, VSP Vision Care’s acquisition of Marchon Eyewear, which is underscoring the increasingly complex set of alignments and business relationships that exist in the market today among ECPs and optical retailers and the organizations that sometimes compete with them and many times support them.

The ‘what does this mean to me?’ requires everyone to establish a really clear picture of their own business. The ‘used to be’s’ are not constructive. The ‘what do I need?’ to run a profitable business, ‘what are my goals?’ as a professional and dispenser/retailer, ‘how do I take charge of decisions with accurate information and planning?’ are the more compelling questions today.

Reorient your mindset to such questions, with a dose of practicality and savvy, listen with an open mind to all sides, and you will continue to keep the power and make the right decisions for your own business in optical’s ever-changing world.