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And that’s how we build our own stores
We love the High Street. That’s where most of our stores are — right at home in our communities. Often when we take over a lease, the store needs quite a lot of tender loving care to make it into a Dresden workshop.
We start with a sketch, and then our own architect, Stefan Vogt, designs the layout and placement of optometry rooms, furniture, and so on.
Our stores are made from sustainably sourced wood such as pine and birch.
Once we have the store to a “clean shell” stage, we start building. In Australia, we use our own team of tradespeople to do the actual store fitout.
The plywood wall is our trademark look. We call it the origami wall.
We use materials called Formply or Filmply to make our cabinets. Jan is our carpenter in Australia. Many of the furniture and special pieces come out of our Sydney workshop.
Once the store is ready, we make up lots and lots of pairs of glasses, and install the optometry equipment. The cost for this specialised gear is close to $100,000. We charge for appointments to reflect this cost, and also the extensive training and experience of our optometrists. In other optometry chains, the appointment is “free”, but the cost is then hidden in much more expensive glasses.
