Suddenly, the focus for high street opticians is on competition. Dollond & Aitchison is to disappear, swallowed up in a merger with Alliance Boots, and the combined group leapfrogs Specsavers to become the UK's biggest optical chain.

However, the deposed leader is not blind to what's going on and has pledged to steal customers from its new, bigger rival.

The new combined group, which will employ about 5,000 people, will have about 690 outlets — all trading under the name Boots Opticians — compared with the 650 that Specsavers operates in the UK and Ireland.

Stefano Pessina, executive deputy chairman of Alliance Boots, said: “The merger gives us an excellent opportunity to create a leading force in the UK optical market. Our plan is to grow and develop the new business, building on the strengths of the Boots brand.”

Although the deal catapults the newly merged entity into first place in terms of the number of UK outlets, Specsavers would continue to be the market leader in terms of revenue. Specsavers has about 22 per cent of the market on this basis, compared with about 16 per cent for Boots and Dollond & Aitchison.

Globally, Specsavers operates about 1,300 outlets.

John Perkins, the son of Doug and Dame Mary Perkins, the husband-and-wife founders of Specsavers, said that Boots and D&A had a “huge geographic overlap” and that he expected many outlets to close as a result of the deal.

Mr Perkins, managing director of Specsavers, said: “Anyone who got out an A-Z and looked at the stores directly would come to the conclusion that in a very high proportion of cases the same town would have both a Boots and a D&A.”

Mr Perkins said he would be “highly surprised” if in many of these cases one of the outlets was not closed. “In terms of D&A customers being nervous, we see an opportunity to provide them with a tonic for their nervousness,” he added.

Boots Opticians insisted that there was little overlap, although it declined to put a figure on possible redundancies or closures.

Pradip Patel, managing director of Boots Opticians, said: “While there will be some limited overlap, the new business will have the scale and competitive strength to enable the company to achieve growth over the coming years.” Mr Patel will become chairman of the new group, while Andy Ferguson, chief executive of Dollond & Aitchison, will become its managing director.

Alliance Boots will own a controlling stake in the new company. De Rigo, the European optical chain that owns D&A, will take a minority stake and is expected to be actively involved in running the business.

All parties declined to comment. De Rigo is an Italian maker of sunglasses and glasses, operating the General Optica retail chain, as well as D&A.

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