Specsavers eyeing Torquay launch

IT’S not your eyes playing tricks on you: Specsavers is about to open its doors in Torquay.

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.

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.

The local franchise’s retail director Phillip Marshall said the group was excited to bring services closer to home for its Surf Coast customers.

“We’ve been servicing the Surf Coast community for a number of years under the Specasvers banner,” he said.

“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.

“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.”

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.

“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.

“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.”

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.

“In the near future, we’ll introduce audiology services. We’re not immediately commencing with that, but that’s the intention.

“We’ve kitted out one of the rooms and we’ll be able to provide full eye and hearing care services.

“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.

“We can cure preventable blindness and pick up so much more if we just give this to every person that comes through.”

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.

“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 – there’s some really great connections,” Mr Marshall said.

“I think Torquay is deserving of these great services.”

Specsavers Torquay will open at 17 Gilbert Street on December 8.

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