Specsavers Audiology, page-7

This was my take on Specsavers partnership, posted on 5th december. Mainly guesses (my speciality I admit it), but still fits the facts we have so far. I agree with you that if they were selling well at Specsavers then we would be hearing about it.

"call me cynical but if nuh products have been trialled in "many" Specsavers stores then why isn't there any reference to how many they have sold? And if they can't reveal that information then why can't they say "sales have been strong" or "promising"? I can't help but think it is likely to be because sales have been disappointing.

The DTC method has done really well and I guess this is further indication that the Specsavers sales have probably been pretty poor in comparison.If this is the case then why is it the case?? well, to spec-ulate, maybe the franchisees (partners or whatever Specsavers call them) don't really want the nuh products and are not pushing them. Why wouldn't they want them? Maybe those who sell hearing products prefer to sell the more expensive, higher margin hearing aids that they've been selling for some time. my guess is that while Specsavers head office are future focussed and can see the change that is coming to the hearing industry, the individual store franchise owners may not be so "switched on" to the fact that the industry will be disrupted sooner or later. Like many audiologists are, the Specsavers franchisees are likely keen to keep things how they currently are, ch-ching!

this guess fits with the information we have about nuh being asked by head office to present at the "store of the future" bit of the Specsavers conference (working hard to get some buy in from franchisees). It also fits with the fact that NUH have not announced anything concrete about the future of this partnership.

Specsavers head office are imo likely to be saying to NUH - "these things take time, we have to get our store owners used to the idea so they support it. Sales a bit slow so far but we do think you guys are onto something here" (and we don't want you to go away completely in case you really ARE onto something). if these guesses are close to the mark then it's promising in the sense that the astute people at Specsavers head office see the industry disruption coming and see NUH as a part of this. It's not so promising that the grassroots disruption is taking quite a while given that time is money for NUH and for now they have to survive mainly on raising capital rather than sales.

if I were a holder I would be frustrated and maybe annoyed at the wording of the announcement in regard to Specsavers (NHS announcement anyone?). I would be worried that DTC sales are the talking point, how many are they selling in the many Specsavers stores??maybe this is why the sp hasn't busted through 5, 6 and 8 as some predicted immediately after the announcement."