Get to know
our industry
We believe you are far better with local, independent hearing care.
Find out why...
Amplifon
This Manchester based UK business is a wholly owned subsidiary of their Milan HQ.
Amplifon bought the Amplivox/Ultratone business back in 2007, and that business was part-owned by GN Hearing, so although GN Hearing no longer has a stake, some of their audiologists lack the knowledge and experience of working with anything beyond the Resound brand that GN Hearing own.
Like Boots, they now sell Phonak hearing aids too.​
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Crucially, Amplifon now charge for home visits, so be wary if you think your mobility may become a problem in the future.
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Boots Hearing
Only actually 50% owned by Boots! The other 50% is owned by Sonova, whose main brand in the UK is Phonak; so again, guess whose products they are most likely to recommend to you?
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Even before the pandemic they had started recruiting a lot of recent graduates, losing experienced audiologists due to an across-the-board cut in their packages to bring down salary costs.
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Boots used to be about premium service and patient care; now it’s all about volume, as they continue to battle it out with Specsavers for the number 1 spot. Funnily enough, that change happened around the same time as they moved their HO to Switzerland thereby avoiding paying UK taxes.
I’m sure that was just a coincidence, aren’t you?
Hidden Hearing
Wholly owned by William Demant, whose main brand in the UK is Oticon.
They will therefore rarely offer/recommend anything other than Oticon aids.
While the product is excellent, they charge significantly more than most for it than independents; mainly to support a bloated and largely non-audiological management structure, with generous expense accounts and Company cars to pay for.
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We'd recommend that you spend your pennies more wisely and consider an independent hearing care specialist who will offer far more choice and individual service, as well as better value for money.
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Specsavers
Just as the opticians is a franchise model, so too are the audiology practices within Specsavers -where the local franchisee pays the head office for accounts, branding and marketing support.
Pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap was the successful optical business model and they’re now doing the same with hearing aids.
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It works for them in that they now prescribe more hearing aids privately in the UK than anyone else. Has it worked for their patients though? If you buy based on price alone and that’s your main driver then Specsavers will be your cheapest option. If however, you value an industry leading hearing assessment and care that is inconsistent, ask yourself if that fits with a business model that relies so heavily on volume.
