I think it needs to be said that business by the end of 2022, for pretty much everyone, was challenging. It was not one of those years where people sailed through the second half easily, calculating just how well they’d meet or exceed rosy projections.

Inflation reared its head by the second half, people started talked about the costs of daily living going up, the Fed and the ‘R’ word (they’re still talking about the ‘R’ word, ‘recession’). There was a cooling off of the pace of acquisition deals in many cases, as interest rates rose and cost structures were reexamined.

Some of those things are reflected in what you’ll see on the face of the new 2023 VM Top 50 U.S. Optical Retailers report, which examines in detail the number of locations opened or closed and the top sales revenues, some shared and some estimated by VM, to establish a look at the country’s largest retail and optical groups. The Top 50 did experience a collective dollar sales increase.

It contrasts though to most business’ experience in calendar year 2021, which we measured last June, where we saw a bigger recovery as most everyone made the hard climb back from that unprecedented, never-before-seen year that was 2020.

Yes, folks, consolidation continued.

But I made the point in this column last year that there are actually many things in common behind the numbers of the large national and regional players and the smaller independents in the market. And this year, this still holds true.

Yes, it often requires scale, larger executive and management teams and operational horsepower to implement plans among big numbers of offices and people. But the fundamentals behind the numbers often require the same philosophy, true know-how and commitment, from everyone.

There have been shifts among some of those on the VM ranking in this year’s report. And several new players have emerged, showing up on the list for the first time, businesses and practices which started small and grew to 8, 10 or 15 or so locations over the past several years and have experienced success. Please read and share your insights with us.

maxelrad@jobson.com