An optician's practice is part clinic, part retail unit and part small lab. You run sight tests and clinical services in the consulting rooms, dispense and sell frames and lenses on the shop floor, and increasingly cut and finish lenses on site. Each of those carries real capital cost, and most of it has to be in place before the first patient walks in. Credicorp lends to opticians and eyecare practices that are UK limited companies or LLPs, for business purposes. We do not lend to individual optometrists or dispensing opticians in a personal capacity.
Where the costs sit
Eyecare spend is front-loaded and lumpy. A single test room fitted with modern equipment, or a lens-edging setup that lets you glaze in-house instead of sending work out, is a significant outlay that pays back gradually over years of trading. Borrowing lets you make that investment without draining the working capital you need to hold frame stock and meet payroll.
- Equipping a consulting or test room — slit lamps, autorefractors, phoropters, visual-field analysers and tonometers
- Adding OCT and retinal-imaging capability to support enhanced clinical services
- Installing or upgrading a lens-edging and glazing lab to finish work on site
- Fitting out or refurbishing the practice — dispensing benches, display walling and the retail frontage
Stock, services and growth
Beyond the kit, an optician's working capital is tied up in frame stock — designer ranges, sunglasses and the lens inventory behind them — which turns over through the year and spikes around new-season launches. Practices also invest to grow: opening a second branch at company level, bringing glazing in-house to cut lab turnaround, or adding clinical services such as dry-eye treatment or myopia management. Because that spend lands ahead of the income it generates, it suits business borrowing rather than draining day-to-day cash. Our notes on equipment and plant costs for incorporated firms and on funding a shop fit-out or refurbishment set out how this works in practice, and much of it mirrors the position in other clinical settings — see funding for dental practices.
How the products apply
Credicorp Flex lets you draw against a facility as buying and seasonal stock timing shift through the year, which suits the revolving nature of frame inventory. Credicorp Slice provides a single amount for one defined purchase, such as an edging lab, an OCT scanner or a branch fit-out. Your account team can help you choose, and your rate and term are those set out in your offer.
Eligibility and protections
We lend to UK limited companies and LLPs only — never to sole traders or individuals — and we take no personal guarantees from the directors or the resident optometrist. The borrowing sits with the company. This is business lending outside the FCA consumer-credit regime, so the Financial Ombudsman Service and FSCS do not apply. For more on why the borrower has to be a company, see why we lend to companies, not sole traders, or use the General Support Enquiry form.
See also: Can an accountancy practice borrow from Credicorp?, Financing materials and stock purchases, How do we fund a large new contract?.