DULUTH, Ga.—National Vision Holdings (NASDAQ: EYE) reported Monday that 2021 was “another great year” for the company, highlighted by record sales and profits, as it begins 2022 with plans to increase its store-opening program by at least 80 new locations this year while building upon a  successful “remote medicine,” or telehealth, pilot project that has been under way. In the fourth quarter of 2021, National Vision reported net revenue of $477.9 million, an increase of almost 19 percent compared to 2019 sales, and comparable-store sales growth of 13.8 percent compared with the 2019 period.

The adjusted comparable-store sales growth was 11.5 percent. (The company provided comparisons with both 2020 and 2019 results, with the latter period being more applicable to 2021, the company said.)
 
National Vision also said net income increased 58.6 percent in the fourth quarter to $6.2 million; with adjusted operating income rising 1.7 percent to $16.8 million compared with the same period of 2019.
 
For the full year 2021, National Vision reported sales climbed 20.6 percent (compared with fiscal 2019) to $2.08 billion, marking the first time the company has exceeded the $2 billion sales mark. Comparable-store sales growth was 15.1 percent and adjusted comparable-store sales growth was 14.7 percent, the announcement noted.

Net income increased 291 percent in 2021 to $128.2 million. And the company grew its overall store count 11 percent from Dec. 28, 2019, to Jan. 1, 2022. The company added 73 net new locations last year, and ended the year with 1,278 stores, including 840 America’s Best locations.

“National Vision had another great year in 2021, delivering record annual sales and profitability,” Reade Fahs, chief executive officer, said in the company’s announcement. “We capped it off with better than-expected results in the fourth quarter, including positive comps driven once again by an increase in customer transactions. While our start to 2022 has been challenged by short-term macro headwinds related to the Omicron variant and severe weather impacting store operations and customer traffic, we remain excited about our ability to continue to grow market share.”

Fahs noted that the company’s two growth brands—America’s Best and Eyeglass World—continue to perform well, which reflects “the ongoing consistency of our business model.”

He added, “Given our white-space opportunity, and the continued favorable market share shifts toward our value positioning, we have increased our planned new store openings to at least 80 stores this year, including a doubling of our annual Eyeglass World builds.”

Fahs concluded, “I have been so impressed with the resilience and dedication to patient and customer care demonstrated by the entire National Vision team, including the 2,000-plus optometrists practicing in or next to our stores, as we all navigate these unusual times. Going forward, while the macro environment remains dynamic, I remain confident in our ability to deliver the consistent sustainable growth we have experienced for the past few decades.” 

On a call with securities analysts Monday morning, National Vision executives noted that the start of 2022 has been impacted by the omicron variant of Covid-19, which has led to a forecast for first-half negative comp-store sales in the mid-single digit range. This will be balanced out in the latter half of the year with a forecast of a high-single digit comp-store result. 

Fahs explained that the "vagaries of the [eyecare] category ... is that Q1 is optical's Christmas, and January and February are the warm-up and March is really the high seasonality period. ... This whole mess of omicron and the weather couldn't have happened at a tougher time, given the category."

In addition in the area of operations, Fahs said one of National Vision’s key focuses in 2022 would be its “remote medicine” pilots, which will ensure that it can “serve ever-increasing patient demand.”

He added, “We spent significant time working to develop these offerings and we are very pleased with the progress. Given the success of these pilots, I'm pleased to report remote exams are currently offered in over 100 locations. In 2022, we plan to expand the remote medicine offering and expect to have a total of at least 200 store locations by year's end. Simply put, we believe everybody wins with remote medicine. Optometrists like the flexibility that it provides, while patients benefit from the increased exam availability.” 

Coupled with the remote medicine rollout, National Vision also is adding a proprietary electronic health record (EHR) system, further digitizing the patient's customer experience, Fahs said.

Fahs also said the company believes that it continued to outperform the industry in 2021, “and we believe that this should continue. We increased our whitespace target for America's Best [locations] by 300 stores in 2021 and we see a long runway for expansion for both our growth brands.”

He added, “The optical industry remains highly fragmented, and we're confident that we have a significant opportunity to continue to grow our market share. …. We're encouraged by the fact that our average ticket has stabilized at a higher level than we expected, primarily helped by 2021 pricing actions and successful product introductions like blue light lenses.
 
"With the current inflationary environment, we expect our target customer will more than ever seek out value offerings. We completed an evaluation of our pricing and implemented some peripheral pricing actions in Q4 that we believe are appropriate while continuing to save our customers money versus competitors,” Fahs said.
 
At the beginning of 2022, National Vision said its cash balance was $305.8 million and the company had no borrowings under its $300 million revolving credit facility, exclusive of letters of credit of $6.4 million. Total debt was $570.1 million as of Jan. 1, and in November 2021 the company voluntarily prepaid $50 million in existing term loans.

Commenting on the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts, Fahs said National Vision made “several leaps forward” last year, including several firsts, such as completing its first greenhouse gas emissions inventory, and publishing its first corporate responsibility report.

The ESG framework also helped National Vision maximize the impact of its philanthropic activities. Last year, National Vision made philanthropic commitments that it expects will help 1 million people around the world to see better. This includes collaborative partnerships with such groups as Americares and Restoring Vision, as well as its own program NVI cares, Fahs said.