The acquisition, which has gone through for an undisclosed sum, will take the optician’s store portfolio to more than 300.
Batemans, which was established 100 years ago and is run as a family business, trades across 75 stores in the South of England.
Vision Express chief executive Bryan Magrath said: “This is a major step in the growth of Vision Express. It not only shows our strength and position within the market, but also demonstrates our intent to invest in brands with the same vision and values in order to grow our business. Batemans Opticians is a well-established business with a great offering and we’ll be looking to extend and maximise these over the coming months.”
It is understood that Vision Express wants to continue its aggressive expansion programme, with another 50 stores due to be added this year.
It has appointed property consultancy CB Richard Ellis to find suitable stores across the UK.
Vision Express is the UK’s second-largest opticians brand after Specsavers, which has an aggressive expansion programme in place with a target of 1,000 stores worldwide by 2010.
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