That's specs appeal!
Jamie Murray Wells wants to do for people who wear glasses what Ryanair did for flyers: provide no-frills, cut-price spectacles. Now the 21-year-old British whizz-kid is targeting Irish consumers. John Meagher reports
Jamie Murray Wells is not an optician. In fact, he never gave the profession a moment's thought when it came to choosing a career. Instead, he pursued an English degree, with the eventual aim of becoming a lawyer.
It was only when he went to buy a pair of reading glasses to prepare for exams that he started to think about the ophthalmic industry - and how he might shake it up.
"I was charged £149.99 (€215) for the glasses, which I thought was extremely expensive," he says. "To me, what I had just bought amounted to little more than a bit of wire and and two pieces of glass. I wondered how high-street opticians could possibly charge so much."
The 21-year-old Englishman didn't just wonder about it; he conducted extensive research and came up with surprising conclusions. "Opticians make huge profits from selling frames and lenses," he says. "They can make up to 1,000% profit. It can cost as little as £7 (€10) to make a pair that sells for £99 (€143). The process takes about 20 minutes, while the majority of the work is done by machine."
He decided to take on the opticians at their own game. "I should have been working on my degree but I kept thinking there was a gap in the market to provide people with cut-price glasses online," he says. "There's a huge demand for it. People don't want to be ripped off."
Glassesdirect.co.uk was established last August, just eight weeks after Murray Wells had finished his studies. At first, orders just trickled in but now he can barely keep up with demand.
The idea is simple: customers get a prescription from their optician and forward this to the company, along with facial measurements (the website offers clear instructions about how to do this) and information on 'pupillary distance', which they can ask their optician to provide. Then they choose a frame from a selection of 60. The spectacles should be with them within days.
He is now selling 200 pairs of glasses a day and, according to favourable write-ups in the UK press, he is already a millionaire - and a thorn in the side of the British ophthalmic business.
"They're not happy about it," he says, "but then I'm offering glasses for a fraction of the price they're charging so it's not surprising."
Murray Wells says the company has more than 10,000 customers and claims the satisfaction rate is higher than that of rivals on the high street. "We have an extremely low returns rate. We manufacture frames and lenses to a very high standard in many of the laboratories that are used by the high-street chains." He refuses to name them because he is worried that they will be put under pressure not to deal with his company. It is thought that suppliers of frames and lenses are under pressure not to do business with firms offering bargain spectacles.
Buoyed up with the business generated in the UK, the young entrepreneur is now seeking to make a mark in Ireland. "We're very happy to offer Irish customers cheaper glasses than any they can get on the high street," he says. Prices start at €22 (excluding posting and packaging) for a pair that would retail for €140 in a high-street store.
The Association of Optometrists Ireland (AOI) is concerned about this move. "You have to be licensed to practise as an optician in Ireland," says AOI president Mark Daly, "but as this firm is supplying eyewear online there is nothing we can do about it except warn potential customers that they are taking a gamble.
"It's not the same as buying a book over the internet. It's an exact science and the information in a prescription is not enough to get everything absolutely right."
Daly, who runs ophthalmic practices in the southside Dublin suburbs of Dundrum and Sandymount, says opticians have justifiable commercial gripes about cut-price operators entering the market. "Internet sales of contact lenses have hit my business to a small extent and I would be worried that some clients might purchase glasses on the net too."
Daly refutes Murray Wells's claims that opticians make 1,000% profit on glasses. "You've got to take into account overheads, such as rent and lighting, as well as trained staff. There are a huge amount of factors that go into providing a professional service. People aren't just buying the glasses, they're buying the expertise too. You won't get that from the internet."
Murray Wells points out that, with virtually no complaints received, the public has been very pleased with the service provided. "We get letters from senior citizens who are absolutely delighted that they can get top-quality glasses for far cheaper than they could buy on the high street. Providing excellent products is of utmost importance to this business and we're doing that."
He says many of the people who contacted his company did not realise they could get their eyes tested at one optician and then take their prescription somewhere else. "There is a feeling out there that if you get your eyes tested in one place you have to buy your glasses there. Opticians are obliged to give their customers the prescription and not put them under pressure to buy their frames and lenses there."
UK chain Specsavers is the market leader in Ireland, with 24 stores in the Republic. The firm, which ruffled the feathers of established operators when it first emerged thanks to its commitment to selling lower-price glasses, is now in the position of criticising the newest kid on the block.
In a statement, Specsavers co-founder Mary Perkins says: "Our glasses start at £30 (€43), including Specsavers standard single vision lenses. To say that glasses cost as little as £3 (€4.30) is grossly misleading as that cost does not reflect the true price once lenses, a case and cleaning cloth are included, not to mention the professional service and ongoing care that a quality reputable optician provides - something that the internet cannot offer."
A spokesperson for Specsavers in Ireland denies that the company is overtly worried about the threat that Murray Wells poses.
But his business is going from strength to strength. "We've had over half a million hits on our website and custom is increasing all the time," he says. "We're looking into providing sportswear and contact lenses too."
He is also confident that vari-focals - which cannot be offered online at the moment due to their complexity - will be made available at some stage. "We're working on it," he says.
With success coming thick and fast, Murray Wells is confident he is here to stay. "I can't see any limit on how far this business can go," he says. "With two thirds of the population needing glasses at some point in their lives, we have a very large market place."