‘Derby’s on the up,’ says Dave Mason, dispensing optician and practice manager at Specs Opticians. Mason has lived in the area for a long time and last year took over management at Specs. ‘This practice originally opened as a dispensing-only business in 1986 when the laws were relaxed,’ he says. ‘But since then its developed into a typical opticians that does both testing and dispensing.’
Mason says the store, which is run by him and his optometrist colleague, caters to a ‘good spectrum’ of people, from those seeking budget frames – provided for free to both children and adults via the NHS – to wealthier folk looking for designer brands.
Interestingly, he says competition from the multiples is not as acute as one might expect. ‘Although we’re located close to the centre of town, we’re not quite there. So, my overheads are lower, and I actually get a lot of walk-ins,’ he says.
‘I would say that half of the business is people getting their prescriptions from the multiples and then coming here to get then fulfilled,’ he adds.
‘Derby is a great city in which to work,’ says Davina Dosanjh, optometrist practice owner at Richard Petrie Optometrists in the West of Derby. ‘I am a local girl born in Derby, schooled in Derby, qualified at City University and came back to reside, to be close to parents and have a family here too.
‘The practice I have is more rural but close to town, so we get quite an informed and dynamic demographic who put importance on eye health, which makes what we do that bit more rewarding.’
Dosanjh (pictured) says her biggest challenge is ‘eye exams versus NHS reimbursement’ and describes this as typical of most areas. ‘We are currently undergoing some changes which may mean some sort of version of Mecs in the area which will be better overall.’
Specsavers in Derby, which has 100 staff, sees ‘around 1,500 patients a week’, says Uan Gohil, store director. He says it is different to ‘many other big city centre opticians’ as its size does not inhibit it from providing a ‘friendly, personal service’.
Who’s in town
Total: 14
Independents: 7
Multiples: 7
Average costs
The price of an eye exam in Derby ranges from £0 to £40, at an average cost of £22. However, this information was taken during national eye health week and thus promotional rates did apply.
Population - see pie chart
Population: 257,034
Community eye care
According to the Locsu Atlas Map of Optical Variation, Derbyshire Local Optical Committee has a contract with Southern Derbyshire CCG in Children’s Vision, Glaucoma Repeat Readings, Low Vision and Cataract Referrals.
Health and affluence
- The average house price in Derby is £197,408 (Zoopla), against a £225,621 UK average (Land Registry, 2018).
- The average salary in Derby is £24,895, compared with the UK average of £27,271 (Payscale, 2018).
- By 2030, it is expected that there will be almost 10,000 people living with sight loss in Derby, an increase of more that 30% on today (RNIB).
- A 35% rate of cataract growth is forecast in Derby, less than the rest of England (50%), by 2030 (RNIB).
Fact file
Derby was created by King Edward the Elder in AD921 as a defence against Vikings who were growing in strength throughout the East Midlands.
Derby claims to have England’s first silk mill. Lombe’s Mill, as it was called, was built after John Lombe returned from Italy with designs for silk production taken from his trip to Piedmont. It is considered one of the earliest cases of industrial espionage.
The grandfather of sociology, Herbert Spencer, pictured, was born in Derby. Despite popular misconception, it was Spencer who coined the term ‘survival of the fittest’ after reading Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
The Sex Pistols were banned from playing in Derby in 1976 while on their ‘Anarchy in the UK’ tour. The City Council cited antisocial behaviour as its reason for doing so.
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