A Star showing from opticians

GOING DOWN A STORM: Paul Slater, store manager at Specsavers in Chorley, celebrates a new look for the town centre opticians with two Storm Troopers

Specsavers on Chapel Street unveiled a major development at the store which has seen the store increase in size by a third.

It celebrated with a day packed with entertainment for customers including two storm troopers positioned outside the store to highlight a new Star Wars range of frames for children.

The redevelopment of the store was driven by increasing demand from customers and the need for more space to increase the number of appointments available.

The additional space has allowed the store to provide customers with a dedicated contact lens area, two new testing rooms, private pre-testing areas and a larger waiting area. It offers the full selection of Specsavers’ designer frames from names such as Gok Wan, Missoni, Red or Dead and Armani.

The £140,000 expansion is the first for the store which will mark its 20th anniversary on Chapel Street later this year.

Specsavers Chorley store director, Rizwan Iqbal, said: “It became clear that our store was too small to allow us to meet the demand from customers and, rather than move to another location, we looked at ways to expand which will allow us to offer greater choice in appointments.

“This is the perfect way to mark our 20th anniversary in Chorley and we were thrilled that so many of our customers came to the store on Saturday to see the changes and celebrate with us.”

Specsavers has more than 1,600 stores throughout the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.

Total revenue for the Specsavers Group was £1.7billion in 2011/2012.

More than 20 million customers used them globally in 2011/2012

Specsavers optical stores and hearing centres are owned and run by joint venture or franchise partners.

Together, they offer both optical and hearing services under one roof.

Specsavers employs more than 30,000 staff.

More than one in three people who wear glasses in the UK buy them from Specsavers – 10,800,000 glasses were exported from the warehouse to stores in 2011.

Specsavers sold more than 290 million contact lenses globally in 2011/12 and has more than a million customers on direct debit schemes. Specsavers’ own contact lens brand – easyvision – is the most known on the high street.