When former CEO of Luxottica UK and veteran of UK optical retailing, Richard Peck, took a call from Inspecs executive chairman and founder, Robin Totterman, asking him to meet him in Gloucester the following morning, little did he realise it would be the beginning of a transformative project for one of the most well-known names in UK optics.
What Totterman wanted to show Peck was the newest acquisition to the Inspecs portfolio, Norville Optical Group’s manufacturing business at Magdala Road in the centre of Gloucester.
In July 2020, Norville entered administration and the manufacturing business faced the very real threat of permanent closure, but a matter of days later, Inspecs had secured the future of the business with a £2.4m investment.
Future-proofing
At Magdala Road, Norville became a name synonymous with optics in the UK. However, the nature of the building, originally an old clothing factory, meant it was not suitable for a modern day ophthalmic laboratory and did not resonate with Peck and Totterman’s vision for vertical integration within the Inspecs business.
The plan was to bring the company’s established frame business together with UK-based lens manufacturing to offer customers a seamless all-in-one package. To realise that vision, a new site was found on the Waterwells business park on the outskirts of Gloucester.
Machinery was dismantled, transported and rebuilt to suit the layout of the new location, alongside significant investment in new machinery for surfacing and edging. With such a big project, there were some teething problems at a time when the new, reinvigorated Norville should have been hitting the ground running.
Peck, by this time Inspecs CEO, admits the transition to the new site should have been more gradual, but he had an ace up his sleeve. He contacted Sean Lawe, previously group supply chain director of Specsavers and an industry veteran of almost 40 years’ experience.
Peck and Lawe were already on the same page thanks to a relationship that stretches back more than 30 years to when both were executive team members of Vision Express and part of the company leadership group that established the multiple’s presence on the high street in the 1990s.
Lawe accepted Peck’s offer to take over the helm of Norville as managing director and set about establishing the company with a set of values in keeping with modern optical manufacturing.
Lawe says: ‘I was fortunate in my career to work for one of the best optical retailers in the world in Specsavers. The knowledge I gained during that time will assist me in driving Norville to new heights of service and quality.’
Lawe has used his extensive experience to implement changes at every level of the business, including production flow changes and product catalogue amendments, which are core to the day-to-day running of the business.
Service industry
The Norville of old was famed for its approach to service and skill in delivering complex prescription jobs that competitor labs could not match. Change in the ophthalmic lab sector over the past decade meant Norville had been working less and less on bread-and-butter practice prescriptions, and more on the weird and wonderful but, ultimately, that is not enough to keep a business going.
Peck and Lawe both say Norville now has a sense of approachability that the large corporate labs cannot match. ‘There exists an unmet need for localised service where personal service remains important’, says Lawe.
‘We are extremely proud of our legacy and our Made in Britain status, and we intend to provide an offer that enables our customers to thrive in this very volatile and changing environment.’
Peck adds: ‘We remain steadfast in our commitment to tackle the most intricate prescriptions while ensuring we provide a solution for all types of orders.’
Inspecs’ growth in recent years has been impressive and is a real British success story. Norville will be integral to continued expansion going forwards, and with the experience of Lawe at the helm of Norville and Peck charting the progression of Inspecs, the iconic Norville looks to be in safe hands.