'I never would have guessed the half of it.....' is a natural, almost inevitable, reaction for a visitor to the Gateshead (Newcastle, North-East England) headquarters of Specialist Optical Services. Established as recently as 1999, this young company - in-house designers and manufacturers of surfacing systems; distributors for leading European and Far Eastern specialists in consulting room, dispensing room and glazing workshop equipment - has already grown to the stature of a significant national ophthalmic goods supplier to the UK market, meriting its chosen name of 'Optical Superstore', and a successful start to export operations has been made. Specialist Optical Services was founded by the present managing director, John Dryden, with a far narrower remit. This was to provide laboratory machine maintenance for the group where his career in optics had begun 10 years earlier, Vision Express UK. Always a machinery enthusiast, John Dryden was originally recruited and trained as a technician at Vision Express's No. 1 British store in Newcastle's famous Metro Centre shopping mall. Over the ensuing years, he progressed to become group laboratory director. His prime task was to guarantee the key Vision Express 'Spectacles in One Hour Service' across the national group. For this, good support, including minimal downtime for in-store surfacing and glazing machinery, was absolutely essential. This service operated out of one of the three units on the Gateshead industrial estate where Specialist Optical Services is located today. Following the acquisition of Vision Express UK by Grand Optical of France, differences of business culture and approach led to what was, in effect, a management buyout by John Dryden of the machinery maintenance activity, against the promise of a year's exclusive service to Vision Express practices. The initial year completed, Specialist Optical Services soon expanded its maintenance service portfolio to cover other optician customers, both groups and single practices. These customers turned to their engineering service supplier for new and additional machinery. Their demand was met as Specialist Optical Services took on the role of sole UK distributor for Indo of Spain's glazing workshop machinery range together with accompanying ancillary equipment and consumables. Flagship of the Indo range is the Maxima 'Maximum Speed' CNC auto-edger which, in combination with the Combimax tracer, can achieve output of more than 35 jobs per hour, edged to prescription. A robotic system has recently been launched, capable of servicing six machines, thus producing 150 jobs per hour. Indo, via S.O.S. in the UK, also now offers an increasingly popular remote lens edging facility.
展开▼
