Midlands roots and Japanese technology are pivotal to Birmingham Optical as high street optics moves further into the clinical arena.
Changes at the top of the Moseley-based firm last year saw Steve Fleming appointed as its CEO, joining Gary Vicary, Neil Townsend and Amanda Danson on the main board of directors.
It followed the retirement of long term CEO and industry stalwart Chris Tyler, who remained as a part-time consultant.
Fleming knows that to pick up where Tyler left off at Birmingham Optical requires strong relationships with suppliers both at home and abroad, while representing the needs of high street partners they manufacture goods for.
He says: ‘There’s a new board, so essentially Chris and Neil have taken a step back. Chris has exited and Neil has moved into more of a consultancy type role.
‘Arran Fewkes has recently joined us as well, as our new financial director. The great thing about the three of us is, for one, we all know each other and have worked together in the past. Arran was my right hand at Vision Express, Amanda was my professional services director at Vision Express, so we don’t have to go through that getting to know each other stage.
‘When we sit and make decisions about the future of the business we can basically get on with it without having to go through the politics that you normally find with new boards and new people joining the business.
‘It’s like working with friends. I am working with people who I trust and respect. So it’s a great place to be, it’s exciting and great fun as well.’
Right tools for the job
Fleming, a former operations director at Vision Express and CEO of hearing aid company Amplifon, has witnessed a transformation in high street optics in the past few decades.
He says: ‘Over the past 20 to 30 years we have gone from independents taking frames out of a drawer to being able to have a proper retail offering. We have come through that phase of it now and moving towards being more about eye health and eye care generally.
‘This is as opposed to just being an ordinary optician providing spectacles to improve your sight. So while I think it’s been exciting in the past, the opportunities for the future changes are significant, with technology going where it is and customer expectations increasing all the time.’
As sole distributor of Nidek equipment in the UK, the emergence of optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become the central pillar of Birmingham Optical’s offering.
Fleming says: ‘The big opportunity in the market is OCT. There’s a lot of interest in that from our customers. Independents have already started to vote with their feet. They are making good purchases with good value for independents and the big boys are all having a look at what their options are and deciding whether they want to go for it.
‘It’s an all-encompassing tool that really offers the optician the opportunity to focus on healthcare, as opposed to just refraction.’
Meanwhile, an increased focus on enhanced services among the multiples should not alarm smaller independent optical practices, according to Fleming.
He adds: ‘Independents have typically got a very loyal customer base. If they’re good at what most independents are good at, including loyalty, service, enhanced services, and customer retention, then I think there are opportunities to be a bit different from Specsavers.
‘I don’t really feel a Specsavers customer is the same as an independent customer. Specsavers is about speed and price and an independent is a bit more about quality and service. That doesn’t mean that Specsavers doesn’t give a good service or doesn’t have quality, because they do, but it’s a different business model.
‘Most independents want to look for points of differentiation and that’s why a number of them have already decided to go with the OCT in its early stages. There are some areas in business where they can’t compete with the likes of Specsavers and Vision Express. The huge businesses they are with the infrastructure to support their practices is a completely different ball game to what the independents can deal with.
‘If they can differentiate on service with the OCT being the tool to help them do that, then a lot of them are looking to do so.’
Upskilling and upgrading
While noting the advancement in services being offered on the high street, Fleming recognises an upskilling of the workforce will be required if high street optics is going to continue to ease the pressure on secondary care through enhanced optical services.
He says: ‘I think there will need to be a skill change. I don’t think you’ve currently got those skills within high street businesses. That again will present the bigger chains with business model challenges.
‘The way they currently do things may not be the way to manage and model their business going forward. The way refraction is handled and the way the optician’s time is used will need to change and that in itself presents lots of different challenges, from a skill point of view but also from a regulatory point of view.
‘But I think those challenges will have to come because the market needs to reflect what customers want and I’m not sure that’s currently the case in all areas.’
Birmingham Optical is also engaged in manufacturing optics through its lens edging division, and Fleming notes a similar evolution in ophthalmic labs.
He says: ‘The robotic side of labs is increasing quite significantly, because what the customers are looking to do is increase productivity. What the Nidek SE9090 [high speed edger] with robotic unit enables them to do is address those productivity challenges. It’s a machine which your cleaner can almost come and load your jobs up in the morning and your production line can start at seven o’clock in the morning – it’s that simple. You put 10 jobs on and away it goes.
‘That piece of machinery is working very well for us and we’re seeing some of the bigger high street opticians looking at that piece of equipment. It’s not right for an independent but equally we have other edgers and lab machinery that can suit the independent as well.’
Klopp-inspired teamwork
In order to gauge the market and adapt to changes, Fleming has set up Birmingham Optical’s team to understand the importance of customer aftercare. He has also taken influence from the manager of his favourite football team.
He says: ‘We’ve got quite an experienced sales force now, mostly optical people who understand the culture and psyche of opticians, but also the day-to-day challenges from a productivity point of view. If a customer buys a piece of equipment from us and three months down the line finds they’re not getting the benefit and ring up for more training, then we are happy to support them with that.
‘We don’t just leave it and say that’s not a problem anymore. That’s not the way we want to do business and not the way I want to build a brand. You’ve got to think about the whole end to end process. If you buy a piece of kit today, it’s probably going to last an optician seven to 10 years depending on whether its lab or ophthalmic and we want to be with them for the whole journey.
‘I don’t want the next touchpoint to be the next time we sell them something. I want there to be regular touchpoints in between.’
Birmingham Optical, which also distributes for brands including Keeler, Oculus and Frastema, also sets out to represent the needs of high street customers to the technology suppliers it works with.
Fleming says: ‘Whatever we do it will have the customer at the heart of it. Going forward, we have to build stronger relationships with customers. We have to understand their needs better and I think our job is to represent their needs in terms of R&D, not just have a portfolio of products because that’s what Nidek has decided to manufacture.
‘We have to represent the customer’s requirements in terms of business model changes and then provide those solutions. Amanda [Danson] spends a lot of time understanding the needs of our key clients, including Specsavers, Vision Express and the independents, and representing these views with Nidek in Japan.
‘Our relationship with them is very strong. Amanda will speak to Japan three or four times a week on various different topics and issues. We meet them at all the major shows in Europe and worldwide throughout the year and we go to Japan at least once a year for a week just to look at the key focus areas and make sure we are getting what we need from a supplier. So there are lots of different touchpoints and very regular dialogue.’
Indeed, there is an emphasis on communication and relationships in Fleming’s management style and remains inspired by the manager of his beloved Liverpool FC – despite some mixed results of late.
He says: ‘Jurgen Klopp (pictured left) is just a revelation. I love his personality and the way he motivates people. His enthusiasm. If you were looking at a man-manager and saying who stands out today as being a real leader of people he would be right up there at the top of the list for me. Infectious and I think he’s brilliant.’
Therefore, some German personality might be working its way into the eclectic mix of influences helping Birmigham Optical remain local at a time of cutting edge global technology.
Birmingham Optical will be exhibiting at stand F80 during Optrafair at Birmingham NEC (April 1-3).