‘Recent market falls have given us the opportunity to buy some great companies at sensible prices,’ says Simon Edelsten, co-manager for investment trust Mid Wynd International (MWY) and the open-ended Artemis Global Select (B568S20) fund.

‘If you look at some of our buys this year you might say we’ve adopted an eyes and ears approach to investing,’ continues the Atermis money manager, who deliberately seeks out companies with a tailwind behind them, such as demographic trends.

‘The world’s population is ageing,’ stresses Edelsten. ‘The World Health Organisation expects the proportion of the world’s population aged over 60 to double by 2050 - from 12% to 22% (it is already over 30% in Japan). That’s 2.1 billion people - up from just 1 billion in 2020.’

So whereas the wider backdrop for consumer discretionary is becoming tougher, this ageing population is supportive of eyeglass demand and is also a structural growth driver for the market in hearing aids, which used to be basic small loudspeakers that amplified sound. Today’s digital iterations are far less conspicuous, meaning even image-conscious youngsters are less reluctant to wear them.

WHY THERE COULD BE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO BUY THESE FIRMS

Edelsten informs Shares he has been ‘waiting for years to buy a hearing aid maker at a reasonable price, confident that demand for these instruments will rise’. Market weakness has enabled him to buy the Swiss-based global leader in this area, namely Sonova (SOON:SWX).

‘Like many “quality growth” companies, its valuation became pretty eye-watering a couple of years ago, with the price to earnings (PE) ratio approaching 45 times at one point’, recounts Edelsten.

But the shares have fallen recently ‘as consumers have delayed purchases and the company has,
like many others seen some inflation of input costs. The shares now trade at a multiple of 16.6 times next year’s forecast earnings. Still pricey, perhaps, but we believe Sonova’s growth prospects look strong and this is one that could deliver good long term returns.’

Other players in this market include Italy’s Amplifon (AMP:BIT), the world’s largest hearing aid retailer, as well as Australian implantable hearing solutions play Cochlear (COH:ASX), which designs and manufactures the Nucleus cochlear implant, the Hybrid electro-acoustic implant and the Baha bone conduction implant.

Cochlear’s shares are down 9% year-to-date, yet they are up more than 25% over five years and results for the year to June 2022 (19 August) proved robust given that Covid-inflicted hospital staffing shortages continue to impact operating theatre capacity. Sales rose 10% to a record A$1.64 billion, driven by strong demand for acoustic implants and sound processor upgrades with all regions and product segments tracking above pre-Covid levels.

IT’S NOT JUST OLDER PEOPLE WHO NEED GLASSES

Although the ageing population underpins growth in eyeglass demand, Edelsten says a ‘greater engine of growth is the young - and specifically young people in Asia, where myopia levels have risen astonishingly in the past 50 years’, probably because the younger demographic spend too much time watching screens.

To tap into this trend, Edelsten recently added Japanese eyeglass maker Hoya (7741:TYO) to his portfolios. Hoya is a ‘world leader in producing eyeglasses, contact lenses, photomasks for semiconductor manufacturing and glass discs for large data storage,’ he explains.

‘All these sectors have long-term growth potential, and Hoya’s shares - like many in Japan - have fallen back in sterling terms this year.’

France’s EssilorLuxottica (EL:EPA), whose shares have fallen 17.7% in 2022 to €154 at the time of writing, is the global leader in the eyewear industry.

Berenberg believes EssilorLuxottica, which designs and distributes ophthalmic lenses, frames and sunglasses, is ‘somewhat of a “safe haven” in the sector. It is most insulated from disruption given its diversified and vertically integrated model, strong pricing power (innovation) and relatively low reliance on China’.

‘Although EssilorLuxottica won’t be entirely immune from a consumer slowdown, prescription eyewear is more resilient and self-help (synergies) can help mitigate near-term headwinds’, insists the investment bank.

EssilorLuxottica supplies and competes with Mister Spex (MRX:ETR), the German online spectacles retailer in which it has an 11.3% stake. The ‘online driven’ eyewear retailer is a beneficiary of the channel shift online and is also expanding its brick and mortar store network, but Mister Spex’s shares have been harshly punished following a profit warning (5 September) posted not that long after a summer of 2021 initial public offering (IPO) in Frankfurt.

Mister Spex’s investment proposition, in the view of Jefferies, is ‘the rollout of an omnichannel model in the highly attractive eyewear industry’. While underlying industry drivers and the store rollout are on track, the broker warns ‘short term revenue and profitability risks outweigh the potential reward in a consumer recession scenario’, having cut its estimates for Mister Spex following the warning, which has left the shares nursing a 73% year-to-date loss.

Other operators in the eyewear space include Warby Parker (WRBY:NYSE), an American prescription glasses, contact lenses and sunglasses retailer, though it is currently loss-making against a backdrop of Covid disruption and soaring costs.

Closer to home, Inspecs (SPEC:AIM) also operates in the recession-resilient eyewear industry. A Bath-based eyewear frames and optically advanced spectacle lenses designer and manufacturer, Inspecs’ customers span global retailers (optical and non-optical), as well as international distributors and independent opticians.

The shares are down by roughly 65% year-to-date to 125p with company-specific headwinds including the rapid decline of the euro against the dollar, challenges in China and production issue-related losses at lens maker Norville.

Following Inspecs’ first half results (18 August), broker Peel Hunt highlighted continued ‘strong underlying momentum in the business, as evidenced by the expansion of the Vietnam facility, the new facility in Portugal and opportunities in new product development with major customers’.

Inspecs is making progress on cutting-edge technologies with the focus on ‘new material generation, smart eyewear, lens technology and sustainability’. For instance, the company has signed a collaboration deal with Bosch to develop smart eyewear and is now supplying lenses directly to retail titan Amazon (AMZN:NASDAQ).

Brown Advisory US Mid-Cap (BYW8R75) fund has recently sold National Vision (EYE:NASDAQ) from its portfolio. While National Vision is gaining share in the low end of optical retail and provides cheap eye exams and glasses, the company also serves a low income consumer likely to struggle during tougher economic times.

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