Eye-catching vision

Getting your eyes tested and spectacles prescribed used to be the preserve of opthalmic opticians running, at most, a small clutch of outlets. Now optical retailing has become big High Street business, with slickly-named chains promising almost instant service and two-for-the-price-of-one offers as if glasses were the optical equivalent of cans of beans.

For five years Alan Cox did very well from the boom in optical supermarkets. Having graduated from what is now Glasgow Caledonian University and worked as a self-employed consultant optometrist in various parts of the UK, he joined one of the emerging chains, Specsavers.

Although he eventually had a profit share in three Specsavers stores in Edinburgh and Glasgow, collectively turning over #3m, he is emphatic that the deal was not a franchise, according to the conventional meaning of that word.

``I had three joint ventures with Specsavers. They owned the stores. I had access to a share of the profits,'' is his description. But psychologically, he insists, there was no sense of running your own business. Not even a cheque book to give you a feeling that some of what you were building was yours.

Having started with a Specsavers outlet in the Asda Centre at Newcraighall in Edinburgh, Cox had opened a second outlet in the capital, at Shandwick Place, and had then moved a third operation from the BhS store in Glasgow's St Enoch Centre to a site on Argyle Street diagonally opposite Marks & Spencer, turning it into one of the most successful of the new breed of optical stores anywhere in Britain.

His ambition within the Guernsey-registered Specsavers was reaching its ceiling. ``I had gone as far as I could. I couldn't open more stores. It was only when I said I would leave that I was offered a bigger role,'' he recalls.

But Cox had negotiated a unique clause in his deal with Specsavers. He could offer to acquire the stores he had developed outright, triggering Specsavers' own pre-emption rights to buy him out.

That was the route he chose. On the basis of his track record to date, he persuaded 3i and the Clydesdale Bank to support a #2.5m bid to buy the three stores. In the event, Specsavers decided to keep the Newcraighall and Argyle Street outlets, but it sold him Shandwick Place and paid him cash for his shares. But what was his next move? Son of Specsavers?

Cox is convinced there is room for a new approach to eye care which both takes account of changing consumer attitudes and creates fresh opportunities for independent opthalmic opticians to grow their businesses. He believes his new company, Opto, launched last summer and (with continued support from 3i and Clydesdale) capitalised at #4m, is the vehicle to make that happen.

Despite the rise of the optical supermarkets, some 55% of the public still go to local independent opticians for their eye care. There is growing market research evidence that, despite the promise of fast service and keen prices, large sections of the public remain suspicious.

``This is a paramedical service,'' he says, ``and many people seem very reluctant to give the care of their eyes over to advertising-driven mass retailers. I'm not saying the big boys don't look after your eyes. But there is a perception in the public's mind that they don't.''

There is, he argues, still a consumer demand for value for money. But the public is also becoming more aspirational when it comes to the frames it puts on its nose, and these requirements are not always met in the utilitarian rapid-in rapid-out environments of many of the superstores.

``Ten years ago you could have slapped the public in the face with a wet fish and they would still buy from you. There's now a demand for a greater sense of customer intimacy which stresses both total eye care and the aspirational side of the service,'' Cox says.

The rapid growth of the big chains - Boots, Dolland & Aitchison, Vision Express and Specsavers - has put pressure on the weaker independents and has certainly deterred younger opthalmic opticians from starting their own businesses.

Meanwhile, Cox says, the persistent shortage of qualified newcomers to the profession means the big boys can themselves have difficulty finding qualified staff for their more remote outlets.

He believes that if Opto can develop a genuine franchise operation, stressing the best of what the current superstores offer, a commitment to total eye care, and an aspirational retail environment, it will appeal to both independents - giving franchisees a real business to manage, backed up with a strong product range, the latest opthalmic equipment and state-of-the-art lens making support - and to frustrated managers of superstores keen, as he was, to branch out on their own.

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ALREADY there are four stores in the emerging Opto empire - the original Edinburgh outlet, Falkirk, Newton Mearns and, opened just this week, Irvine. So far all are company owned, proving the concept.

Cox expects to open a further six units in the next three months. ``I think we'll be franchising by the summer,'' he adds. The longer term target is for 50 stores within five years, spread throughout Scotland and northern England.

That still leaves a big gap between Opto and the superstores. Specsavers has 200 outlets. Dolland & Aitchison around 350. Since its management buy-out, Dolland has been dabbling in franchising, but Cox is not convinced it can spin out the concept the way he can. Boots and Vision Express (jointly owned by a US investment company and Italian framemakers) are strictly company-owned operations.

``We plan to keep a few company-owned stores to help with overheads,'' he says. The core Opto business, based in the Clydeway Skypark beside the Clydeside Expressway, which is undergoing a noisy refurbishment by owner Allied London and Scottish Properties, houses the central management, stock purchasing and training operations. The main manufacturing facility for non-standard lenses will probably also be franchised.

If Alan Cox has identified his niche for Opto correctly, this 33-year-old could prove to be the next eye-catching phenomenon in the fast-changing world of optical care.