IT’S not your eyes playing tricks on you: Specsavers is about to open its doors in Torquay.<\/p>\n
The well-known eyecare franchise will set up in Torquay’s shopping precinct at Gilbert Street next month to serve its growing cohort of Surf Coast customers.<\/p>\n
A familiar team that is currently behind the nearest Specsavers stores at Waurn Ponds and Belmont will be opening a new store at the former Bendigo Bank building, in its first foray to the region after 15 years in Geelong.<\/p>\n
The local franchise’s retail director Phillip Marshall said the group was excited to bring services closer to home for its Surf Coast customers.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been servicing the Surf Coast community for a number of years under the Specasvers banner,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We know that with such a massive population explosion down in the Surf Coast area, we wanted to bring something more local to the community.<\/p>\n
“Because we have been servicing the community there for such a long time and it was a decent percentage, we thought it was about time to bring it closer to home.”<\/p>\n
The new Torquay store will be open seven days a week and provide a full range of Specsavers services that its customers have come to expect.<\/p>\n
“We’re not just there to sell glasses, we’re there to serve the eyecare and health care needs of the community,” Mr Marshall said.<\/p>\n
“If you have a sore eye on the weekend and have to drive into us in a busy area, that’s a bit of an inconvenience, so being available is something that’s important to us.”<\/p>\n
In addition to its range of 1,100 eyewear products and bulk billed eye checkups, Specsavers will include advanced retina scans in its services for a comprehensive picture of eye health, while it is also investigating adding ear health services shortly after its Torquay launch.<\/p>\n
“In the near future, we’ll introduce audiology services. We’re not immediately commencing with that, but that’s the intention.<\/p>\n
“We’ve kitted out one of the rooms and we’ll be able to provide full eye and hearing care services.<\/p>\n
“Initially it will be full eye services, that includes 3D retinal scans as well. That’s something that specsavers has implemented as a health service.<\/p>\n
“We can cure preventable blindness and pick up so much more if we just give this to every person that comes through.”<\/p>\n
The franchise will also seek to develop grassroots relationships at its new home, including sponsorships of local organisations and carrying on its philanthropic activities across the Surf Coast.<\/p>\n
“We understand that being a part of the community, we have an opportunity to benefit and to be a part of that; we have sponsorships, we work with the Fred Hollows Foundation, we have glasses recycling through Lions Club \u2013 there’s some really great connections,” Mr Marshall said.<\/p>\n
“I think Torquay is deserving of these great services.”<\/p>\n
Specsavers Torquay will open at 17 Gilbert Street on December 8.<\/p>\n