Company history 2016 - 2026

Business is founded by Colin Birkman after leaving Specsavers which he was a part of since 2009

Time spent acquiring additional local & regional Opticians as clients, as the business started off making glasses only for Opticians initially. Colin's Mother, Emma joined the business to assist with the manufacturing and dispatch of the orders for Opticians.

First big investment into new manufacturering equipment. This increased quality & allowed us to meet the growing volume of work. The equipment also gave us an upper hand against competitors as our machine had features that were in demand

Members of the public start to find out about Precision Optics Eyewear and begin to enquire about us manufacturing eyewear for them directly. First direct to consumer orders are taken as a trial alongside manufacturing for Opticians 

Direct to consumer orders for members of the public increase significantly & consistently. Focus & attention started to split between both segments of the business

The decision was made to cease working with & manufacturing for Opticians, so that the business could focus on the growing database of new & returning public clientel. Full focus starts on direct to consumer model as we saw a gap in the local market which was not being met as well as we thought it could be. 

Investment was made to expand the business to create a larger showroom area and to enhance the overall client experience. Product ranges were increased to test various models for our clients 

Covid-19 Pandemic hit and forced the closure of the showroom after only a few months of opening

A zero contact model was developed to help members of the community. This was the only source of income for the business. This was a challenging time for everyone. This meant taking a photo of every frame and uploading to the website for clients to browse, the frames were then delivered to their homes and a phone consultation was given to discuss options and lenses

The showroom was slowly reopened with new safety measures along with certain restrictions. Here we tried to get back to the feeling of pre Pandemic ways

The showroom picks up and begins to become very popular. Mid 2023 saw the company begin to reach it's maximum capacity of what could be done with only one person running it

The decision was made to start to build a team within the business. Our first recruitment campaign launched aswell as purchasing our first company vehicle which would be used for collections & deliveries of orders & repairs

Kim joins the team to facilitate the manufacturing of orders, along with the running of the lab & collecting/delivering orders. The business & demand for our services continued to grow

During a meeting it is discussed about the next steps of the business due to it getting busier. This was a crucial step and a really big decision, one that if we didn't make the right choice, at the right time, it may have gone a different way. 2 options were available, to either recruit for someone to help with sales, or someone to assist with client aftercare/assistance & administration 

Kerry joins the team. This was to facilitate the need for looking after the loyal clients that we had. Ensuring that we respected what we already had was more important than pushing for new business before we felt ready. We knew that if we could create a strong client aftercare & assistance process, that when we did start to recruit for someone in sales, that the aftercare, assistance and administrative support was there, ready and prepared 

We began to vertically integrate the business. Here we took control of some of the main parts of the business such as frames and merchandise (frames, cases, cloths, lens cleaner). We sourced and created contacts directly with the factories manufacturing these products. This eliminated the middle man (supplier/third parties), meaning that we now have factories manufacturing goods for us, who we now work directly with

Second company vehicle purchased in preparation for the next phase of the business. This vehicle was purchased to facilitate our model of extending our showroom services in a mobile version by going directly to our clients at their home

Donna joined the team. This is to facilitate the mobile home visit services. Donna starts to see client's alongside Colin in the showroom for training 

The home visit mobile service was trialed officially for 2 weeks with Colin & Donna on the road. Kim was manufacturing the products whilst Kerry was assisting clients & following up with their aftercare 

After a review & team chat about the mobile home visit services, the whole model was tweaked & then launched alongside the showroom. Meaning a fully operational showroom is working alongside a fully operational mobile home visit services

After our end of year meeting, we decided we would continue growing our team, business & prominence within Tendring.

To accommodate our growth and future plans, we secured a new office premises for our showroom, office & manufacturing Lab which he had purpose built.

In April we secured our new Mobile showroom vehicle, this allowed us to deliver our services with style and reliability, whilst being more environmentally friendly.

In May we started recruiting for an Optical Dispenser to prepare for our move and expansion to Frinton On Sea.

We welcomed Stacey to the team in June. Stacey began her training to become our third Optical Dispenser within the team.

After months of building work, our Showroom, Office, Lab and HQ were finished and ready to move in to.

For these months we focused on improving procedures, growth and fine tuning our business model. Our consistent growth saw approximately 30 - 37 new clients each month, as well as returning clients too.

We started to meet new clients in the local area who were part of various groups and organisations, of which we also soon became a part of. We started to regularly attend various groups, clubs, charities in the local Tendring area, offering our free complimentary services, advice and free products to help support members and their groups.

We created 2 new revenue streams for the business. 

New revenue stream 1

We created our Online showroom, where clients can pick 5 frames from our website, have them delivered to their home/workplace, and try them for a week. Donna will then attend to confirm their frame choice and order lenses, then returning a few days later with their completed order.

New revenue stream 2

We rebranded and re-structured our B2B (business to business) part of our model where we manufacture for Opticians. We rebranded this as separate division of Precision Optics Eyewear and branded this as OG+ (Optical Glazing Plus). This model is exclusively for the optical industry. You can see more about this part of the business here www.ogplus.co.uk We make eyewear for various businesses, ranging from solo frame makers, independent high street Opticians, to large franchise/multiple stores, along with large optical colleges & universities.

We focused on our core parts of the business and aimed at improving efficiency and further fine tuning our model of how we operate.

Our "See now - Pay later" 0% interest payment plan was launched. This allowed our clients to be able to spread the cost of their purchases over 3 months with 0% interest.

Our Online Showroom was completed throughout March and ready for launch. This was the third way in how our clients could order with us. 

We launched the Online showroom with a huge promotion - 50% off all frames & lenses when ordering with the Online showroom. The launch was a huge success & we gathered feedback throughout this month whilst making tweaks to how we fulfilled orders at HQ to further perfect the model.

As workload increased with Precision Optics Eyewear clients and with our Optical clients with OG+, we increased our working hours within the team to allow us to deal with the increase in workload and demand without compromising on service or product quality.

10 years in business

30+ new clients each month

Over 1,700 clients who use us locally

5 amazing, highly trained & caring team members

Highest rated eyewear manufacturer in the area since 2016

Operations - An omnichannel business model, where we provide 3 different ways in which our clients can access our one offering, which is manufacturing the best eyewear, in the best way, everytime, serving our amazing clients in the Tending and surrounding areas.

Thank you for your support, time and custom!

The Precision Optics Eyewear team!