Leightons announces recruitment push

Leightons Opticians and Hearing Care has announced that it will undertake a major recruitment drive in 2018.

The recruitment campaign will mark the company’s 90th anniversary and follows years of investment by the company in other areas, such as store refurbishment, technology and marketing.

Leightons has refurbished 20 of its 34 stores over the past five years. The store in Putney saw new customers grow by 51% in the year following its redesign.

Now, the company is turning its attention to what director of professional services, Andrew Bridges, calls its most important asset – its people. 

“We’re launching a recruitment drive, hunting for passionate and progressive dispensing opticians and optometrists,” he said. 

“We believe passionately in training, continual professional development and working with the best professionals: dispensing opticians, contact lens practitioners, optometrists as well as audiologists, because we believe that by offering the very highest standards of care, we will grow together,” Mr Bridges added.   

Leightons also plans to expand its myopia control offering from the current eight stores, with five more in December, and then adding services to a further four or five stores in each quarter of 2018.

Mr Bridges said: "Working with Keith Tempany and British Contact Lens Association, we want to encourage our practitioners - be they optometrists or dispensing opticians - to expand their knowledge and education in contact lenses as we see this as a real growth area for the business.”

The independent will be looking to expand its Minor Eye Conditions Services (MECS) when commissioners have set up the scheme. 

Nine Leightons practices in the five clinical commissioning group areas currently deliver the MECS scheme.