Vision Express is a British eyewear company established in 1988, now owned by EssilorLuxottica. It sells

spectacles Glasses, also known as eyeglasses (American English), spectacles (Commonwealth English), or colloquially as specs, are Visual perception, vision eyewear with clear or tinted lens (optics), lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front ...

sunglasses Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names Sunglasses#Other names, below) are a form of Eye protection, protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damagin ...

and

contact lenses Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lens (optics), lenses placed directly on the surface of the Human eye, eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct ...

History

The company opened its first practice in 1988, at the MetroCentre,

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

, quickly followed by several other stores. In October 1993 ''US Shoe Corp''

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

sold the seven of its LensCrafters' superstores in the United Kingdom to Vision Express. In 1995, the first store operating on a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

basis was opened. The company had grown to over 220 practices across the United Kingdom by 2007. In May 2008 ''Batemans Opticians'' was acquired, which comprised a seventy-five practice chain in

Southern England Southern England, also known as the South of England or the South, is a sub-national part of England. Officially, it is made up of the southern, south-western and part of the eastern parts of England, consisting of the statistical regions of ...

. The majority of these practices have since been rebranded as Vision Express. There are currently 575 clinics throughout the United Kingdom,

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

. Of these clinics approx. 195 are fully company-owned, with the remainder being under joint Venture partnerships. Vision Express is also in Poland, where it has over 110 clinics. It has recently opened a series of clinics in India in partnership with Reliance. On 1 May 2013, Vision Express announced that it had acquired twelve optical clinics from Crown Eyeglass Ltd. The stores, situated in the

North West of England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

, will become part of the Vision Express portfolio, bringing its total number of outlets in the United Kingdom and Ireland to 331. Eight of the properties currently trading as Crown Optical Centre and Direkt Optik will transfer optical services to nearby Vision Express premises and Vision Express will seek to retain the valued experience of the Crown Eyeglass Ltd personnel within the Vision Express store network. The remaining four clinics will trade from their existing locations, with their existing teams under Vision Express branding. On 1 February 2014, the high street retail business of Rayner & Keeler Opticians was bought by Vision Express from ''JBR1910 Limited''. On 1 December 2014 Vision Express announced the acquisition of the business of Liverpool-based ''Conlons Opticians'' for an undisclosed fee. It was stated that ten of the nineteen clinics purchased would continue to trade from their current locations, with the existing clinic teams as part of the Vision Express portfolio, with the remaining eight clinics transferring services to their nearest Vision Express clinic. The following day, it was announced that the store in Millom (which was due to be transferred to the nearby location of

Barrow-In-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

), would remain open following a review from local residents, bringing the total number of Vision Express stores to 390 by the end of 2014. Following a further announcement on 9 December 2014, Vision Express decided to continue to trade from the Conlons store in Annan as part of its portfolio. This increased the total number of clinics to 391 by the end of 2014. December 2017 saw Vision Express announce the completion of the deal to incorporate 209 Tesco Opticians into their portfolio. This increased the Vision Express store count (in the UK) to 600. By June 2018, all the Tesco Optician clinics had been rebranded to VE@Tesco. In late March 2020, Vision Express closed non-essential branches indefinitely in a nationwide response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Onur Köksal, (CEO) began to initiate the

furlough A furlough (; from , "leave of absence") is a temporary cessation of paid employment that is intended to address the special needs of a company or employer; these needs may be due to economic conditions that affect a specific employer, or to thos ...

of all non-essential staff. A small number of clinics are said to have remained open to offer essential, emergency clinical care. From the end of 2020, to present times, the company began to resume routine testing in line with government guidance. Extra efforts followed to ensure that patients with critical care needs were prioritised over non-essential interactions. Patients were called before attending their appointments to confirm that they had not developed any symptoms of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

and nor had anyone in their household.

Takeover by Grand Vision

Grand Vision acquired Vision Express in 1997. The French parent company ''Grand Vision'' has clinics under various brands across Europe, and the rest of the world. Under franchise agreement there is a strong Vision Express brand present also in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n and

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n markets. These clinics were acquired from GrandVision by Latvian entrepreneurs of "LU Optometrijas Centrs SIA". Currently "Vision Express" brand in Latvia and Lithuania is operated as a part of OC VISION group.

References

External links

Vision Express website

Vision Express India

Vision Express Poland

Vision Express Lithuania

Vision Express Latvia

Vision Express Philippines
{{Authority control Eyewear companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1988 Retail companies established in 1988 Eyewear retailers of the United Kingdom Companies based in Nottinghamshire Ruddington EssilorLuxottica