Specsavers has announced plans to make a $100 Million CDN investment to cover start up costs for new Specsavers locations across the country. The investment, an approach unique to the Canadian market, will cover start up costs of approximately $500,000 for 200 locations.

The initial focus will be on British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

What will the $500,000 per store cover?
Bill Moir, General Manager/Executive VP at Specsavers Canada told Optik the investment will include “the full cost of a Specsavers store, including design, construction, furniture, product displays, technology infrastructure and stock.

Optometry partners will receive a fully-integrated clinic at no charge. Their clinic will be fitted with a state-of-the-art diagnostics environment, equipped with the latest multi-functional auto refraction and detection technology, visual fields equipment, OCT technology, and cloud-based image storage.

Retail partners will receive a newly designed Specsavers store with a world-class range of 1,500 frame styles, colours and designer brands; ophthalmic lenses; and contact lenses providing great value, style, and selection to customers.”

By covering all establishment costs, Specsavers will enable ECPs to start their clinic and optical store debt-free in order that, ” both optometry and retail partners will begin receiving any profit generated from their first month of business,” said Moir.

Optometrists, opticians, and retail partners who qualify for ownership are required to pay a one-time $25,000 fee to receive 40% ownership of the brand new retail store.  

Purpose Driven Investment
The investment decision is uniquely tailored to the Canadian situation. “Every market has different dynamics and needs. In each of them, we design our partnership model to meet the needs of local eyecare professionals. This is the partnership model which we feel will best support independent optometrists in Canada and this investment also signifies our long term commitment to the Canadian market.” said Moir.

According to Moir, the investment announcement is about creating opportunities and empowering independent optometrists to remain independent.

Moir believes that the current market consolidation trends will result in fewer product and service options for consumers and fewer career development opportunities for Canadian ECPs.

“At a time when we’re seeing more and more consolidation in the Canadian market with independent optometrists and opticians being encouraged to sell their practices to a handful of larger players, we intend to reverse that trend and offer an alternative that enables them to own a thriving business, have access to cutting-edge technology and put their patients first.” said Moir

Moir summarizes, “This is a significant investment from Specsavers, but we believe in making long term decisions which means not hesitating to remove barriers and advocate for independent optometrists.”

Optometrists and opticians who want to learn more about the Specsavers partnership can visit specsavers-spectrum.ca.

Click HERE for the full press release and additional information.

This post was updated January 27, 2022

About Specsavers
Currently, Specsavers operates in more than 2,300 locations, encompassing 3,250 optometry and retail partners who look after the eye health of over 41 million customers within the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Northern Europe, Spain – and now Canada.