The restructuring of the optical industry in the U.S. continued among the industry’s largest retail and ECP group players last year. The 2018 VM Top 50 U.S. Optical Retailer’s Report exclusively assesses 2017 calendar year sales, revealing new positioning among the Top 10 players within 2018’s Top 50 ranking.
Experienced larger players saw organic comp-store sales growth, a respectable performance among those stores with long-time presence in the market—both by players offering a value message and by some of those in the upper-moderate and premium sectors of the market.
Most of the higher concentration of sales among the Top 10 U.S. optical retailers, though, as estimated by VM based on calendar 2017 sales, was due to consolidation that began back in 2015.
There is a now a higher concentration of sales among several companies whose acquisitions are now more visibly comprising larger networks—formed by private-equity acquisitions of regional optical groups as well as many dozens of formerly smaller, independent practices. As PE-backed management groups continue to form, as we saw in 2017, this restructuring is likely to be even more apparent by the end of this year.
Sales for the 10 largest retailers on the VM Top 50 list for 2012 increased by 3.8 percent from an estimated $6,533.7 million in 2011 to an estimated $6,785.1 million in 2012, while their share of total sales for the Top 50 dipped from 85.9 percent in 2011 to 84.1 percent in 2012. The mass merchants’ share of Top 50’s estimated optical U.S. sales remained the same at 31.6 percent, with their total estimated 2012 sales increasing 4.6 percent from $2,439.2 million in 2011 to $2,551.4 million in 2012.
The top 20 eye glass stores include the following:
- Luxottica Retail
- Wal-Mart Stores
- Visionworks of America,
- (formerly HVHC
- Retail Group)
- National Vision, Inc.
- Costco Wholesale
- Refac Optical Group
- Eyemart Express, Ltd.
- Cohen’s Fashion Optical
- For Eyes/Insight Optical Mfg.
- Texas State Optical
- American Optical Services
- Shopko Stores Operating
- LLC
- Emerging Vision, Inc
- MyEyeDr/Capital Vision
- Services, LLC
- Eyecarecenter, ODPA
- Clarkson Eyecare
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What are the best sunglasses? Quality is their number one concern, especially when it comes to sunglasses, which are so vital to eye health. Whether it’s Oakley, Ray-Ban, Maui Jim, Costa or any of our brands, these stores sell designer sunwear, offering the largest selection of premium products available.
