Young Practice of the Year 2018

Winner: Focus Medical Eye Centre 

Community engagement, paired with strong relationships with local ophthalmologists, has helped Focus Medical Centre grow since it opened in 2014.

Husband and wife optometrist duo, Anthony and Amanda Bahadur, were keen to put their vision of optometry into practice when they purchased Focus Medical Eye Centre from a retiring ophthalmologist around three years ago. 

“We purchased the practice because we both believe in looking after our patients as well as we can. We believe in providing patient-centred care, looking after people as best as we can, giving our time and offering a quality service from the eye exam right through to the frames and lenses that we dispense to our patients,” they shared.

This ethos has been well received by the community that the practice serves, with growth far exceeding the pair’s expectations and expansion has been required as a result. 

While the optometrists aim was to maintain turnover in the first year, it actually grew by 40%, with another 15% on top of that in year two. As a result, a second testing room was built and the practice has since introduced audiology to its services. 

“We purchased the practice because we both believe in looking after our patients as well as we can”

Anthony and Amanda Bahadur

Runners up

Finalist: Cooper & Barr Opticians

Nicola Cooper-Heenan took past learning and piloted new initiatives when opening the second brand of Cooper & Barr.

The opening of the Sedgefield practice in August 2014 allowed the optometrist to grow the independent’s overall business, but also build on and improve the business model. 

The practice is based in a village of 5000 residents, a demographic that Ms Cooper-Heenan researched extensively prior to opening to ensure she could create a practice that would appeal to the local community. 

Leaflet drops, social media and local media helped raise the practice’s profile when it opened and today the practice has more than doubled its patient base from year one to year three. 

Finalist: DF Optometrists

Optometrist David Fleischmann established DF Optometrists in September 2013 “as a matter of need.” Having worked at a practice for nine years, he had a strong desire to do it for himself and had a now or never moment. 

Based in London, the house practice has grown from 0 to 1000 patients in four years. Mr Fleischmann credits is success on the flexibility that it offers patients, its involvement in the local community, and a policy of putting as much profit as possible back into the business to invest in technology.