Eastbourne in East Sussex has somewhat of a retiring reputation. Once popular in the Victorian period, the coastal town has become a place to settle for the elderly generation to live out their days. The county has produced a particular chain since the late 1950s named Barracloughs the Opticians, now co-owned by Nigel Barraclough.
The very first Barracloughs practice was opened by Frank Barraclough in 1957. He decided to become an optometrist after being told he was short-sighted as a child, at the time when the NHS was just starting to pay for eye tests and provided its own range of glasses. He found optometry interesting, so completed his pre-registration year in Brighton and purchased premises in St Leonards.
A second practice in Bexhill was acquired during the 1960s and 1974 saw the opening of the Eastbourne practice. The following decade included a practice opening in Battle and Frank’s sons Tony and Nigel became a dispensing optician in 1982 and an optometrist in 1986 respectively. Two more practices in Seaford and Polegate joined the ranks during the 1990s and after a gap of 20 years, another two practices were taken over in Uckfield and Lewes.
Nigel Barraclough is a co-director at the eight practices and works mainly in the Eastbourne branch. His start into optometry began at a young age. ‘I was about eight or nine and would be at the practice stamping NHS forms after walking there from school. That was my first introduction to it really. I don’t actually wear glasses myself but have been interested in optometry for so long due to my dad’s influence. I’d probably have become an architect if I wasn’t doing what I am now,’ he says.
Inside their Eastbourne practice
Barraclough graduated with his degree from City, University of London and after completing his pre-registration year at his dad’s practice, became a member of staff and a partner in the business. ‘Both my dad and I trained at City and Surainder Puri, one of our partners, did as well. We’ve still got some affiliations with London as my dad does work at the British Optical Association Museum at the College of Optometrists. At the great age of 89, he is one of the leading specialists in antique glasses and helps the people there out with any enquiries or liaisons. He was always quite keen on technological advances and computers, so we try to get as much new technology in as we can, such as our OCT and Optomap. We actually have our own app, where the retinal photos we’ve taken of patients’ eyes are made available for them to look at whenever they like. It’s been useful if they’ve attended an eye examination at a hospital, so if we had referred them there for a suspected tumour for example, the hospital could see what their eyes looked like before.’
The practice has undergone a recent rebranding. Barraclough says: ‘Patients would have previously known the practice as Barraclough and Stiles, due to my dad’s business partner Peter Stiles’ involvement, but we found that people were misspelling the name online and the name was a bit of a mouthful for patients. We dropped Stiles during our rebranding a few years ago as people tend to know us by just Barracloughs these days. All of the staff got involved in the rebranding process in some way. It’s gone down really well, which we’re pleased with.’
The emphasis on family is strong throughout the practices, as Barraclough’s wife has worked as an optical assistant for the past 20 years, brother Tony has just retired from being a dispensing optician and partner, and his nephew Ryan is currently in his second year of an optometry degree at Portsmouth University. There could be the introduction of a third-generation Barraclough to the business in a few years. His sister also trained as a dispensing optician who was involved at the practices 20 years ago but has since emigrated to Australia.
Have his children ever shown any interest in the optical industry? ‘My children didn’t really want to know. I brought my son in when he was younger to do a week of work experience, I don’t think being overly nice to people all day long was his cup of tea. He’s a teacher now, so he works with children and my daughter works in recruitment.’
The first Barracloughs practice in St Leonards in 1957
The team have always had a good relationship with their patients. Barraclough says: ‘I think our patients like the fact that this is a family run business. We have always treated patients like they’re our friends or family and we ensure that patients see the same person every appointment. We like to always take our time with our patients and treat them as individuals, so they’re not just a name or a face. Tony and I actually used to have some of the older patients come in and say that they remembered us being in prams, so it’s nice that we’re still seeing the same people. I’ve seen patients grow older as I have, and you adapt to their changing needs. In fact, the oldest patient I’ve seen was 112 years old. I’ve personally been treating some of the same patients for most of my career and I’m now starting to see the second generations of their families. I think this is because we’re trusted by our patients to offer the best value for money and promote the awareness of eye health. People wouldn’t come back if they weren’t happy with the service. Some patients have also recommended us to other people that they know, which has been a key part of us receiving new patients.’
Barraclough says the team across all eight practices are proud to be independent opticians that really care about their patients. ‘My dad told me that he used to make notes on patients’ records about what was going on in their lives, so he could ask about it the next time he saw them. This was a friendly way of staying up to date with them and making them feel comfortable. We’ve always thought that you need plenty of time for appointments in order to get the best results out of patients’ eye examinations and it’s good to be honest and open with them. Even if you have difficulties when testing them or if you make a mistake, patients generally appreciate your honesty. It’s all about the people at the end of the day, you can’t really train someone to have a natural and friendly character towards patients in their job.’
The practices like to help their staff to achieve and progress in their careers as they regularly supervise pre-registration optometrists. They also have had various younger members of staff who started out doing work experience or as an optical assistant and then have gone on to train as a dispensing optician or an optometrist. Indeed, a recent addition to the team has had to undergo a course to adapt from German optometry to be able to work in this country as an optometrist.
All members of staff have accounts on the Barraclough’s online portal, where they can stay up to date with the latest information, what is happening in all the other practices and organise staff meetings. They also hired a specialist IT manager, who does the marketing and advertising, as well as helping to promote the business on social media.
Barraclough says that he has seen fewer independent practices as of late. ‘I think it would be hard to get into it and start from scratch. I’m not sure if you could open a practice with no existing records as the overheads and the rent of premises are so high and the fee parts are so low. You can’t do it on just fees alone, so you almost have to sell spectacles in order to pay for everything else.’
The business celebrated its 60th anniversary last year with a party in Eastbourne for all current and previous staff to help boost morale and to commemorate the achievement. Barraclough hopes to celebrate the practice’s 70th anniversary in nine years’ time.