Boots honours one of its longest serving opticians at special event

Boots held a special event at the Boot family home in Nottingham to celebrate the 50-year anniversary since Philip Quinby joined the business to train as a dispensing optician.

Mr Quinby joined the company on 1 August 1966 at the Hudson Verity Opticians before it was acquired by Dolland & Aitchison in 1968. He currently works for Boots Opticians in Hull Prospect Centre as a contact lens optician.

As part of a new initiative, Boots will annually recognise staff who have 50 or more years’ of service with the company. Mr Quinby was inducted alongside 19 other Boots employees as recognition for his dedication to optics and for the care of his patients.

Mr Quinby told OT: “It was a privilege for me and my wife to be invited to the Boots 50 Year Club inaugural event. Over the last 50 years, as far as the optics profession is concerned, it’s seen massive and amazing changes. Technology, as far as the supply of spectacles and contact lenses is concerned, has improved massively for our patients, and it’s so much more accepted to be a spectacles wearer. Looking back though, I still find meeting patients one of the most enjoyable parts of my work.”

At the event, Mr Quinby was presented with a gift of his choice, an iPad, as well as a personalised book covering history of Boots and his career by the senior vice president and managing director of Boots, Elizabeth Fagan. The booklet intertwines Mr Quinby and the company’s history in a timeline, and features old store posters and promotions.