Specsavers has celebrated 10 years in Australia and New Zealand, awarding its top achievers, welcoming new store partners to its Board and setting the scene for the year ahead.
More than 600 Specsavers store partners gathered at Sydney’s newly reopened International Convention Centre in early March to attend Specsaver’s Support Office Expo, a full day of partner seminar presentations and a sparkling ‘Awards for Excellence’ Dinner. The dinner event was capped off by a surprise appearance by the outrageous Dame Edna Everage who presented a cheque to the evening’s charity partners, CanTeen Australia and CanTeen New Zealand. The sum of AU$125,400 was raised over the course of the evening via the event’s Platinum Prize Draw.
Channel 9 Finance Editor Ross Greenwood hosted and facilitated the daytime sessions, while Today Show co-anchor Lisa Wilkinson hosted the Awards for Excellence Dinner.
Seminar guest speaker and Specsavers global CEO, John Perkins, delivered the keynote daytime address while Aus/NZ Managing Director Nigel Parker set the scene for the business in the year ahead and recapped on Specsavers’ first ten years in the Australian and New Zealand markets.
More than 600 Specsavers store partners gathered at Sydney’s newly reopened International Convention Centre
Mr. Parker talked about the Specsavers extraordinary growth from a zero base in 2007 – when the franchise opened its original wholesaling and manufacturing business in Port Melbourne – to the point where the store partners are collectively closing in on the AU$800 million annual sales mark in Australia and NZ$110 million in New Zealand.
Additionally during the day, store partners attended presentations by support office teams, including one from Optometry Director Peter Larsen and one from Optometry Development Manager Dr. Ben Ashby, who provided a future view of clinical excellence, backed by a number of new initiatives.
At the Support Office Expo, store partners were able to gather information and ideas from 20 stands, including three fully built model-stores with all the latest diagnostic and automated equipment. Fashion designer Collette Dinnigan was also involved, helping out on the product team stands.
Awards for Excellence
Awards were presented to leading Specsavers store partners across seven categories:
Australian Store of the Year: Specsavers Strathpine
New Zealand Store of the Year: Specsavers Mount Maunganui
Clinical Excellence: Specsavers Narellan
Excellence in Overall Performance (Australia): Specsavers Strathpine
Excellence in Overall Performance (New Zealand): Specsavers Mount Maunganui
Excellence in the Community: Specsavers Shellharbour & Specsavers Hastings (Joint Winners)
Excellence in Customer Service: Specsavers Strathpine
Excellence in Team Culture: Specsavers Success & Wanganui
Dispensing Excellence: Specsavers Mount Barker
Specsavers Appoints Partners to Board |
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Specsavers in Australia and New Zealand has followed the lead of its parent in the United Kingdom, appointing three of its franchise partners to the board. Optometrist partners Chris Papatheodorou from Specsavers Burwood in Sydney and Philip Walsh from Specsavers New Lynn in Auckland as well as dispensing partner Richard Dyson from Cairns in Queensland, were officially appointed to the board on Saturday 4 March at Specsaver’s biennial Partnership Seminar. The three partners have been appointed to the Specsavers Australia and New Zealand Board for a two-year term after which it is understood they will be replaced by three new partners. Peter Larsen, Optometry Director and a member of the Specsavers Board, said although Specsavers’ decision to appoint franchise partners to the board was a first for optics, it was a natural progression for the organisation. “The Specsavers partnership concept is highly collaborative for a franchise – with a strong working bond between store partners and support office. We have involved store partners in more and more of our core decision making groups over the past 18 months and that has worked really well, ensuring that the decisions we make are road-tested with and by experienced partners. We felt the time was right to take the practicality of partner involvement in support office and Board decisions to its logical next step, and appoint representatives to the Board. What this means is that our store partners are now represented at the highest level in strategic discussions and whole-of-business decision-making, as well as working through how strategy flows through into business-focussed initiatives.” He said having partners on the Board would also enable the executive to provide and receive direct input and feedback from fellow partners. “The big picture outcome is you get a partner focussed view at the highest level of decision making in the business. So, as you build and implement the business plan, everyone’s got their eyes on the ensuing successes, and everyone can be represented. As we grow this becomes increasingly important.” Mr. Larsen said the three new board members had been appointed because “they have always been vocal, they are successful, they have already shown themselves to be valuable members of our partner representative groups and they’re passionate advocates of the Specsavers business, representing their fellow- partners.” |
