‘If I can look back on my tenure as CEO at Leightons and see that we created the best-in-market optical and audiology business on the high street I will be very happy,’ Ryan Leighton says.
The group has been built on a foundation of several ambitious generations of eye care professionals. Ryan Leighton’s grandfather, a dispensing optician, opened the first practice in Southampton, 1928.
By the mid-1930s the group had expanded into Hampshire, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight. During the second world war the wives of conscripted managers took over the vacated roles in the group.
Leighton is keen to discuss the future of eye care in the south of England, a region highlighted in the most recently published Prospect Health survey as one of the UK’s regions experiencing a drought of optical professionals. He details his project to fine-tune the family brand with the addition of hearing care. Through partnerships and mergers Leightons will be adding to its 34 practices over the coming years.
Saul Sebag: As the CEO of a major chain, how do you plan to steer Leightons towards sustainable growth?
Ryan Leighton By achieving constant improvement we hope to create customers for life and competitive advantage.
There are no quotas for expansion, it is not about how many stores we have at all; rather for us it is all about connecting up the right people for our brand with the right business opportunity, where joint venture, franchise or shared ownership are all options. We would rather focus on having fewer stores but make sure each one is remarkable.
SS What excites you most about the optical-audiology offering?
RL Survival and success is all about how quickly and how far the independent sector can go to genuinely differentiate products and services. The business has survived since 1928 because it has strong values and a desire to adapt, and will seek new ways to bring its philosophy to life. I am inspired to create something unique by connecting optical and audiology in a truly best-in-market way.
The challenges that face the independent sector, we also face. There is growing competition and intense price-led marketing from national chains and supermarkets, plus the future threat of online.
SS What is the latest news on your expansion plans, given your recent partnership with Keith Tempany to create the Leightons Tempany practice in Poole, Dorset (Optician, 15.1.16)?
RL Expansion beyond the existing stores will be contained within the south-east, a region we know well. It’s my role to make sure we stay true to our philosophy, and that we live our values, while rapidly adapting and investing for the future. We have a further 11 stores that we plan to complete by the end of 2016. We are on a mission to create a destination for clinical optometry, specialist contact lens (CL) services, and professional audiology.
SS How will partnerships such as that with Tempany help achieve your ambitions for Leightons?
RL We approached Keith with the idea of combining our businesses in Poole. By merging our businesses, resources and skill sets we can leverage the best of both worlds – Keith’s passion and knowledge for CLs and boutique eyewear with our ambitious team in Poole.
The strategy here is to align brands. In addition to Leightons & Tempany, we now have three similar shared brand name business partnerships: Leightons Insight (Marlow) and Leightons Eye (Windsor). Plus Spectrum (Lewes), which we intend to retain as a separate brand.
Furthermore, as Leightons takes on more of the business administration and marketing etc, time is freed up for the owner-clinician. As a result we are able to increase revenues, elevate the customer experience and create cost savings.
We at Leightons will provide the central support in the areas of marketing, IT, finance, operations and HR, which allows Keith to be free of the business administration and allow him to focus on elevating and differentiating the customer experience.
We are also working with Keith to help us train and launch orthokeratology in more stores across the estate, just one component of how we intend to develop our clinical expertise.
SS How do you see the business growing this year with Tempany?
RL The business will grow organically in 2016 with optical forecasting high single digit growth and audiology as the smaller, faster growing business set to produce strong double digit growth.
SS What’s the biggest challenge facing Leightons in the south-east?
RL It is to continue to attract highly clinical and ambitious optometrists, dispensing opticians and audiologists who will help us meet our growth requirements.
[CaptionComponent="2569"]SS How far are you in the rollout of the new look and the scrapping of the burgundy branding?
RL We’ve now carried out Project Burgundy improvements to 16 stores plus our central support office. The PB bandwagon is accelerating in 2016 with a radical new keystone centre of excellence going live in Reading in mid-March, then Farnham and Marlow live by end March and mid-April. We have a further seven stores that are in design and will be completed by end of Q2, with a further four planned to be completed by end of 2016. There will be a small number of stores that due to relocation requirements or lease situations will not be carried in 2016.
SS What makes you confident that this new look is going to help you gain customers for life?
RL We have now carried out quite a few brand revamps and there’s no doubt it’s a great boost for the team, energies rise and people become even more engaged in what we are trying to achieve.
We have closely monitored all our Project Burgundy post-fit performance improvements and are very pleased with the results. Of course, the result does differ widely, largely correlated to impact of the store design and level of investment, but overall we have been very pleased with the strength of the new customer intake, the revenue growth and return on investment. We’ve also improved ease of booking, investing in a real-time online appointment system.
SS Why should people visit a Leightons branch over a high street multiple or independent optics-audiology practice?
RL Winning new customers and retaining existing customers for life will require constant focus by everyone within the group. We are looking to support our branches with the most innovative and progressive end-to-end business and professional assistance, training and development. That’s on top of intelligent marketing and customer experience learning, advanced and innovative IT, operational performance improvement teams, robust financial control, HR and recruitment, and professional services support.
