Deals on wheels

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He accepts there is scepticism on the concept of eyewear sales on the internet, but points out that his company safeguards customers as best it can, using qualified staff. And anyway, many of the rival spectacle websites are owned by opticians and laboratories, without any backlash.

A dispensing optician, Cregor is the UK licensor of the Specslab operation, whose parent company is Dubai-based ITC group, a sales and marketing firm dealing with blue chip companies in SMS marketing.

Cregor describes himself as born into optics. The son of frame manufacturer Norman Cregor, he is adamant that specslab.co.uk is not glassesdirect.co.uk. 'I'm not James Murray Wells,' says the former Dollond & Aitchison franchisee. 'He is all about making the news - they have the PR mechanism. The whole "Glasses are much cheaper on the web" has been done to death. What we try to do, within the limits of credibility, is to retail spectacles online only through a franchised network of qualified optical practitioners.'