Within ten months of breaking into the Australian retailoptical market, Specsavers has defied recent ailing economic pressures, to prevail in achieving their target of opening 150 stores throughout the country.
Hot on the heels of launching their flagship store Sydney’s CBD last November Specsavers has continued its booming foray into the Australian eyewear market, with the opening of their 150th store in the Queensland town of Bundaberg on Saturday 13th December.
“Specsavers does not aim to own stores and never will. We simply exist to support highly professional owner-operators in all Specsavers branded stores.” Doug Perkins
The optical retailer’s price philosophy – two pairs of glasses for the price of one on all frames priced AUD$199 and above – is proving to be a winning formula.
The retailer prides its growth on the large-scale uptake of stores as well as its consumer-driven philosophy of low prices, a broad based high quality product range, and exemplary service.
“Over the past year employed optoms, dispensers and store managers have fast grasped the whole idea of storeownership in a fully supported Specsavers environment; almost all new store openings are now greenfield operations running as a partnership between an optometrist and a dispenser or retail manager,” explains Specsavers Australian managing director, Peter Larsen.
Specsavers founder, Doug Perkins, has also announced the acquisition of four NSW Medispecs practices by Specsavers in the Macarthur Region of Ingleburn, Campbelltown Mall, Campbelltown’s Macarthur Square and Narellan; a deal forged in November 2008.
According to Perkins, future ownership of the practices is evident. “This acquisition is a perfect example of what the Specsavers empowerment model is all about. Having taken on these stores, our next step is to enable an optometrist and dispenser partnership team to own each of these stores,” says Perkins. “Specsavers does not aim to own stores and never will. We exist to support highly professional owneroperators in all Specsavers branded stores.”
Internationally, Specsavers announced the recent acquisition of 26 stores from local Finnish optical chain, Eyen, across 20 cities across Finland, endeavouring to soon add Helsinki, Vantaa and Tampere to its burgeoning global repertoire. With another five stores in the pipeline, Specsavers aim to expand their Finnish presence to reach 90 stores by March 2010.
