Zerrin Pekri lifts the elegant, black Lindberg horn frame out of its sleek, stylish box and hands it over for closer inspection. She details its attributes in admiration, handling the frame with great care. Even after 40 years in the optical industry, her passion for the business is undeniable.
Pekri co-launched iTec Optical in Luton 18 months ago with her former boss and founder of lens company Horizon Optical, Len Doherty, with whom she worked at the company for 25 years. iTec’s bright and spacious premises are well suited for the kind of detailed, close-range work carried out by the company’s technical team.
State-of-the-art Nidek equipment, worth in excess of £150,000, lines the surfaces including an ICE 1000 Intelligent Blocker and an ME 1200 Multi-function Edger. Colour-coded sets of mini-drawers containing frames and lenses ready for glazing are positioned at each stage of the production line.
iTec’s technicians currently process in the region of 400 pairs of lenses a week for around 60 returning customers – they launched with just two – and numbers are growing. Doherty plans to expand the self-financed company in early 2017. ‘We are growing steadily at iTec. Customers are sending us more work and we plan to take on four additional technicians and a part-time employee to help with packing,’ he says, adding: ‘If we get to a certain level with the business we will also introduce surfacing.’
Doherty is no stranger to building a successful business. He launched Horizon Optical at the age of 23 following a five-year apprenticeship and over a period of 37 years developed it into one of the largest and most highly regarded independent prescription houses in the UK. He sold the business to Essilor in 2009.
Pekri joined Horizon Optical in 1989 as the only lens rep and within six months numbers of employees increased from 18 to 25 to accommodate growth. By the time Doherty sold the business, there were 65 employees and Pekri was still the sole lens sales rep in the company.
After the buy-out Pekri stayed on at Horizon until mid-2014, after which she contacted Doherty, who had retired and moved to Florida. The duo decided to join forces again to launch iTec Optical later that year. ‘We just want to do what we do and enjoy it,’ explains Pekri, adding: ‘I really want this to work.’
An example of a specialist work from iTec Optical
What iTec Optical currently lacks in size, it makes up for in experience. Doherty has trained hundreds of glazing technicians, including his former staff at Horizon Optical and the three technicians who work with him now at iTec. He also taught specialist glazing techniques at Keele University.
His current team were working with Doherty when Lindberg eyewear approached Horizon Optical in 1994 to receive special training in Denmark, after which the company became the first UK prescription house approved to glaze Air Titanium frames. The technicians have continued to hone their skills ever since.
‘We are the only independent Lindberg-approved lab,’ says Pekri, ‘When we glazed Lindberg’s sample lenses and sent them back for checking we received an email that same afternoon to say we were approved.’
iTec is viewed by many as a go-to lab for more tricky jobs, especially when it comes to rimless glazing. ‘We have the expertise to glaze even the most demanding frames,’ says Doherty, adding: ‘Frames made from exotic materials are difficult to glaze and opticians often don’t want to take the risk to glaze them in-house so they send them to us.’
iTec Optical technician Demitirius Loft using the Nidek ICE 1000 Intelligent Blocker
While iTec Optical’s doors are wide open to every optical customer, it is at the specialist end of the market that Doherty expects the company to excel. ‘We will grow in the high end,’ he says. iTec’s technicians routinely glaze complex shell, horn, gold, silver and wood frames. They also handle quirky requests such as producing specialist goggles for an upcoming war film and they also specialise in repairs.
‘Opticians may have an agreement with a large lens company but they don’t want to wait for two weeks to send the frames to a manufacturer to be repaired so they come to us and we can complete the job in one to two days. We get a lot of jobs like that,’ says Pekri. She adds: ‘I actually took Dem [Demitrius Loft, one of iTec’s technicians] to the Lindberg factory in Denmark in 2012 to learn more specialist techniques. He is one of the first people in this country to repair Lindberg frames.’
Pekri says that quite often she will not charge opticians to do repairs as a sign of good will and also good business sense. ‘A lot of opticians are very nice people who will appreciate and remember your kindness,’ she says. ‘Our customers trust me because I am honest and I will do anything to make sure I get a job done well.’
One of the key benefits for Pekri of having 40 years’ experience in the industry is gaining a deep and extensive knowledge of the products she sells. She regularly meets with lens companies to learn about new developments, which she says enable her to provide an unbiased view and advise her customers on almost every lens option.
‘I enjoy talking to opticians and I enjoy the challenges they set me because I work well under pressure. A practitioner who has already tried their local lab can phone me up with a really difficult prescription. I will go through every lens company to find someone who will make those lenses. You can go to one of the large companies and they won’t be able to tell you if you can have a D35 trifocal because they have never made one,’ she says.
Nidek ME 1200 Multifunction Edger
However, Pekri adds that it can be frustrating to learn about exciting developments in lens technology when some practitioners will find one lens they like and stick with it for many years.
‘There is so much out there and I think it is only fair to the patients to let them try something new. All varifocals have 90-day warranties so it is worth taking the risk,’ she says.
Pushing the boundaries and achieving success is something that Pekri has done from the get-go. She joined a company called Levers Optical in 1976 at the age of 17 as an accounts assistant and within three months she was processing orders and later, buying frames for the company. At 21, she was given a company car and sent on the road as a lens rep. After two further years of working as a lens rep at Drayford Optical she joined Horizon Optical in 1989.
‘My secret to success has always been to listen to people, find out what they want and go ahead and do it. I enjoy doing things right and making sure people get what they want. I also take notes on everything people say to me and I remember details like patients names because I am genuinely interested,’ she says.
In her earlier career, Pekri says she had to work hard to win customers’ trust in a male-dominated market, but that much has changed now. ‘I don’t remember very many female lens reps when I started 40 years ago. I had to win over a couple of the older guys. They gave you a challenge, you sorted it out and then you won their confidence. Now you see so many female reps out there. It’s completely changed.’
Whatever the challenge, Pekri has always found a way to make things work. After starting a family she returned to work when her daughter was six months old. ‘My mother and daughter travelled everywhere with me because I was still breastfeeding,’ she recalls. ‘For the first couple of months Len gave up his office for my mother and daughter so that I could go on working,’ she adds.
Now, more than ever, Pekri is juggling multiple tasks to ensure that iTec is successful. She arrives at work at 7am after a commute of one-and-a-half hours and she processes invoices, bank statements, opens new accounts, unpacks all the lenses and enters new jobs onto the computer. It is not unusual for Pekri to work a 12-hour day. ‘When I finish a task I feel that I have done something brilliant and I feel proud. I have made so many friends in this industry and I wouldn’t want to do anything else,’ she says.
It is still early days for iTec Optical and as Doherty acknowledges, the industry has changed dramatically and especially in the past 10 years with the advance of technology alongside skill and expertise. ‘There is more competition and fewer independent practices now but there is enough business out there and we are growing steadily,’ he says.
With their determination, experience, expertise and positive approach, the team at iTec Optical have every chance of achieving long-term success.
