Interview: David Goad General manager, Robert Frith Optometrists

‘I don’t want to take over the world,’ says David Goad, general manager of Robert Frith Optometrists, but the acquisition of IJ Brown may help him save the world of independent optics.

The acquisition (Optician 11.11.16) could be viewed as a simple business takeover boosting Frith’s tally of practices to 15 and filling in some of the gaps in the West Country group’s coverage. But for some eye care professionals, potentially readers of this article, it could mean owning their own business, a life in a new community, and a career as an independent.

Goad freely admits he has always thought the Robert Frith group should have between 15 and 20 sites to achieve the right scale and had been looking to ‘fill in the gaps’. But he also admits that being offered the opportunity of buying four practices just as Frith was settling in the acquisition of Harts of Yeovil did not make for good timing. This ‘marriage made in heaven’, has added Brown’s Swanage, Dorchester, Weymouth and Bridport practices to complement Frith’s practices in Gillingham, Shaftesbury and Blandford, Castle Cary, Wincanton, Glastonbury, Yeovil, Chard Crewkerne and Sidmouth. A Twickenham practice, owned by Robert Frith, completes the 15 across Dorset, Devon and Somerset.