Newcomer puts cheap glasses in focus

Adrian Paterson credits Specsavers with expanding the market for prescription specs. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Buying new glasses is getting cheaper as an international chain offers frames and lenses from $79.

The British budget retailer Specsavers - promoted by style guru Gok Wan - is undercutting usual prices for spectacles, which can go to $500 or $1000.

The Weekend Herald tested the firm's claims this week.

We found the bargain-basement $79 and two-for-$199 range adequate, if a little basic.

Slightly more expensive pairs with more interesting designs were $249 for two pairs and the firm's top-of-the-range offerings were much cheaper than those of its competitors.

Specsavers New Zealand managing director Graeme Edmond said the company had gained a 12.5 per cent share of the $285 million local eyewear market since its first stores opened in November.

It aimed to become the biggest optical retailer in New Zealand within the next 12 months.

"We have been blown away by the response from New Zealanders, it's just testimony to the fact they haven't been getting a very good deal."

Mr Edmond blamed high prices on a lack of competition which made buying prescription glasses a purchase made begrudgingly.

The market was driven by suppliers and fragmented, with no real engagement between eyecare professionals and the public.

"The way things were set up meant you got very high-priced frames and lenses that had come from international manufacturers who sold them to importers who then sold them to retailers who added their margins before selling them to consumers.

"In the end, New Zealanders were paying far too much for their eyewear."

Hamilton optometrist Adrian Paterson, who has been in the industry for 35 years, conceded that Specsavers - the world's third-largest optical group - had a slick marketing scheme.

But he was sceptical about claims that Specsavers was "changing the face of optometry" or that its prices at the higher end were any better.

"Really what they are doing is changing the face of marketing the price of spectacles.

"We know when they supply the same quality to the same technical level their pricing is very similar to ours."

But Mr Paterson said Specsavers' presence in the market could only benefit the eyewear and eyecaremarket.

"The good thing about it is it is growing the market and is bringing people in who have gone to the chemist or The Warehouse to get the $2 stuff.

"Those glasses don't hurt their eyes but people don't get a proper eye examination, so if we can bring those people in it has to be a good thing."

The owner of the OPSM and Sunglass Hut eyewear stores confirmed plans for a $30 million expansion in New Zealand.

Luxottica national sales director Michelle Ephraims said prices for its top-line Ray Ban, Prada and Versace brands were likely to remain unchanged, but the retailer was "definitely on track" to open a chain of as yet unnamed value stores by the end of the year.

WHAT THEY CHARGE

Specsavers
* 2 pairs single vision glasses from $199.
* 2 pairs designer glasses from $389.

OPSM
* Expect to pay $500-plus if glasses are not on sale.
* Average frames cost about $300 to $400 and lenses can cost $150 or more.