Aller-retour en Paris

Aller-retour en Paris

Once again, we had the pleasure of touring the two grand Halls at Les Parcs des Expositions in Paris during the weekend of SILMO Paris 2025. While the official attendance figures haven’t been released yet, it felt like there was a bit more breathing room around the Frame Hall (Hall 7).

This Hall has grown immensely over the years and now houses every conceivable frame brand you can imagine. To name-drop just one: Albert I’m Stein.

Have you been framed? Not likely!

The main goal of these stands is to entice optical retailers to stock their brand names and, in turn, market those names to their customers.

Some brands come with street cred from fashion, perfumes, or ateliers, while others are the brainchildren of frame manufacturers who work hard with posters, point-of-sale materials, brochures, and excellent store service. However, there’s a disconnect between worldwide small frame couturiers and the UK market.

Brexit, no doubt, hasn’t helped the flow of products in either direction and has deterred many companies from making the necessary efforts.

Another factor is the UK frame marketing concept in optical businesses, where a curated frame mix is either ordered on sale of the product to be glazed in-house or off-practice, slowly depleting the stock mix.

Very few independents use the frame module system available on their PMS systems, which is a shame because it could provide a wealth of information about customer purchases, frame ranges, price mixes, and best sellers. Often, this doesn’t result in the best GP.

European independents, on the other hand, are very different in their stock provisions. They love new styles in choice, color, and shape, as well as new materials. When a style or sometimes an entire season’s range is sold, they will purchase new 2025/26 models to replenish their stock.

We’ve heard from UK spectacle wearers that they often spot the same frames in almost the same position on frame bars during their biennial visits!

The other frame purchasing challenges for UK opticians include the time involved in meeting sales reps, time away from eyecare, and a lack of knowledge and preparation on what customers want.
Whatever the issue, it has had a negative impact on European companies funding road reps to travel the UK’s vast spaces to sell a handful of frames. Most have given up, compounding the problem.

This brings us back to SILMO 2025 Hall 7, full of Europeans buying frames and very few UK customers.

The next stop for most UK opticians is 100% Optical on the first weekend in March, where they can at least see a selection of brands, albeit on a smaller scale than SILMO. Or will they be on the hunt for optical equipment or CPD opportunities?

While the appeal of OCTs is currently the strategy for increased footfall in advertising, one can’t help but think that an exciting range of fashion frames is a very good and longer-lasting second line of temptation.