Q&A: Ian Curtis, dispensing optician and partner at Curtis Opticians

What does it mean to be a ‘family practice’?

Ian Curtis We market our business as a provider of professional eye care for all the family. This is not easy in today’s market with the larger companies also marketing to all ages.

We continue to offer products to match all budgets and all ages, from free NHS to niche brands. They are all well categorised by brand, gender or age group and with a brightly coloured area for the children’s frames.

This requires us to keep a large stock of frames, our traditional frame bars allow us to display 900 models in-sight, so that there really is something for everyone. This can be costly to the business if not managed properly.