A chance meeting at Opti Munich last year was an important step towards a new-look Leightons Opticians, a total revamp that has just been achieved with its newly opened practice in London’s Putney.
Gone forever are the old Leightons’ burgundy colour scheme, wooden display units and the imposing reception desk and in has come a
German-inspired design with white laminate, a brick-effect wall, sleek glass and a dash of fuchsia.
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Ryan Leighton, CEO, explains his meeting with the interior design firm chosen for the project. ‘I was walking along at Opti having done all my appointments and saw a big space with sumptuous carpeting, low-lying sofas and a fake fire. I sat down and was given a beer and a brochure. It was the stand of interior specialist Heikuaus.’
After a visit to the UK, Heikaus took away the job spec – mixing the new with Leightons’ heritage and family values. The company then came back with a number of concept designs that were able to unify eye care and audiology. ‘We decided on one and we tweaked that for Putney,’ adds Leighton.
Consumer research among 40-50-year-olds had revealed that a change in look for the group was essential. ‘We showed them different designs of current stores and they didn’t resonate with a younger market. The feedback was pretty poor – the majority didn’t want to shop there. What we thought they were looking for in the independent sector – a homely feel and comfort – was wrong. They want a clean, fresh and different look.’
Wall-to-wall highlights
One of the main highlights of the Putney store is a faux-brick wall that runs across the expanded building. There is a floor-to-ceiling glass frontage, oak flooring and a designer sunglass wall. The white laminate used throughout in desks and display is from Germany and does not give a black line at the joins. A fuchsia colour scheme is used on several walls, inspired by the fountain pen ink used by company founder Henry Oscar Leighton. There is also abstract artwork of cross-stitch rose embroidery on several walls, with the frames below tying in nicely with the colour scheme.
‘We wanted the rose to be abstract and didn’t want it to be obvious, so that it’s cool and different and doesn’t need explaining,’ says Leighton.
The fuchsia colour is also used as a line under the new logo. ‘It’s a nice, strong connection back to our heritage. We’ve used the original logo in a minimalist way with the fuchsia line below. As Leightons Opticians are guardians of many brands we are using a logo that doesn’t shout too loudly itself, allowing other brands to stand out.’
The fascia also makes note of the year Leightons was formed, 1928, and incorporates what Leighton describes as the company’s strongly held value proposition ‘To see. To hear. To live...’
He argues that optical practices now must be able to compete head-on with other retailers, standing out in retail terms, not just against other opticians or they will be forgotten. The resulting look, he says, gives a nod to London life, with elements of warehouse style, all aimed a wooing the younger market. ‘While the look and feel of the store is young and vibrant, with a strong retail focus, we’ve also put great care into the clinical environments as this is core to our DNA. Audiology, optometry and dispensing services are all found away from the shop floor in private, quiet settings. We feel that the store design seamlessly connects hearing and eye care, while providing an environment for browsing and dispensing eyewear.’
The Putney store had one of the smallest footprints in the group, however it was one of the best performing, making it an obvious choice for the new concept. Dispensing optician and franchise owner Renee Bansal, who opened the store 17 years ago, described the refit and expansion as showing faith in himself and the business going forward.
The square footage of the practice has almost doubled, expanding into the neighbouring unit, which had been a health food shop, then a greeting card outlet. Bansal moved out to a nearby unit in the Putney Exchange centre while the refit was carried out over four months this year, and even in the temporary location saw an uplift in trade, attracting new patients.
With the extension also comes the need for new staff. ‘We have another DO and are starting slowly so we have the right team, not a knee-jerk reaction. A lot of the existing staff have been with us from almost day one,’ he adds.
He describes the practice as giving a Leightons’ experience, with pride in eye care, a personal touch and attention to detail. That attention to detail extends to a Sonos music system playing chill-out music, giving a relaxed vibe for browsing some 600 pieces, ranging from ‘bread and butter’ frames through to Lindberg and Tom Ford.
Bansal explains that the sunglass area has almost doubled in size, with the designs displayed in a different, minimalist way. ‘We’ve also taken on eyewear by Chloe, Mykita, Persol and Italia Indendent. Italia Independent creates a lot of interest – they’re a little more funky and fun and lots of customers try them on,’ he says.
The main focus is on early presbyopes, with Leighton pointing out the aim to be the most relevant optician for that audience, with best-in-market products and clinical care.
Audiology is another major focus, with the latest in hearing aids displayed on their own plinth in the window alongside designer eyewear.
The audiology room has a noise excluding door, an investment of £6,000, and acoustic boards, so that audiologist Guy Lovell can perform hearing tests as accurately as possible.Lovell who worked in Devon, then Harley Street, points to a much younger demographic in Putney – people in their 50s and 60s, rather than 70 plus. ‘Unlike with sight, you can bumble on through with hearing loss. However if it starts to affect your work, for example lawyers, who can lose money as result, they want to do something about it.’
He adds that the purpose-built room, with equipment including an video otoscope and linked TV screen, enables real-time demonstrations to patients of what is going on in their ears. ‘We can do anything here that needs a mould, from TV earpieces to swim moulds for children with a hole in their eardrum, ear plugs for racing driving, people who go to gigs, even to block out the noise from snoring,’ he says.
The hearing aids are priced from a £1,000 wireless device to a £2,500 moulded in-ear device that is barely noticeable and Leighton describes the set up as creating ‘a little corner of Harley Street in Putney’.
More refits on the way
While Putney is the first in the new-look concept, the company’s smaller Chandler’s Ford practice near Southampton has also been revamped using some of the components – the brick wall and the new colour scheme, a dedicated audiology suite and an extended range of frames and services. ‘Each store has to reflect the local demographic. It’s not a cookie-cutting machine,’ says Leighton. ‘We can learn from things that work well in one location, that can then be used in another with a similar demographic, while always looking to improve with each new shopfit.’
Although many of the Leightons stores could benefit from a revamp, it would not be financially possible to do them all at on once, he says. As a result, three more refits are planned for this year, with a three-month review at the start of 2015. Given the success of the first month of trading in Putney, which Bansal describes as having seen sunglass sales rise by 200 per cent and optical sales by 30 per cent, it is safe to say that the refit programme may gather pace.
Another Leightons development due to launch is real-time online appointment booking and an e-commerce sunglass sit, with a second phase launch due later this year focused on contact lens reordering and mobile sites. It has gone to considerable effort to photograph every piece of eyewear, giving 360 degree views, which Leighton describes as helping to provide a best-in-market showcase to the designs.
Keeping the customer happy is a major aim and there is little doubt that when Leightons carries out its next round of consumer research into store design it will make for better reading than the last.