New optical and audiology services at Sainsbury’s in Upton have launched with a special ribbon cutting event and a VIP guest.
Founder of Specsavers, Dame Mary Perkins, flew into the region from the company’s support office in Guernsey especially to open Merseyside’s second Specsavers store within a Sainsbury’s supermarket. The new store has benefitted from a £600k investment and staff working at the store bring a combined 75 years’ professional experience.
The store also marks an important milestone in a career journey for store directors Felicity Roberts and James McNeely, who will be running the new Upton Specsavers store. Felicity started her career at the Birkenhead Specsavers store when she was just 15 and a pupil at West Kirby Grammar, joining as a Saturday girl and quickly moving up the ranks. She is now director at both Birkenhead and Upton.
Felicity says: ‘I feel so lucky to be director of two Specsavers stores. I am incredibly passionate about optics and audiology and I also really enjoy building the careers of our new starters. Specsavers offers lots of career progression, and it’s amazing to help members of staff develop and grow.’
Also leading both stores with Felicity is optical director James McNeely, 35. James’ optical career journey also started at Specsavers in Birkenhead as a summer student in 2011 and he gradually trained up to be a qualified optician. And 18 months ago he secured a role as optical director in Birkenhead.
James said: ‘I am looking forward to working with Felicity to make both stores successful, and also creating a professional and friendly environment for both staff and customers.’
Ken Roberts, who has been a director at the Birkenhead store for 27 years, says: ‘It was clear very quickly to me that Felicity and James were the perfect team to run both the Birkenhead and Upton stores. They are both results driven and have a real passion for making a difference in their local community.’
As well as enhancing optical services for local people, the new Upton store will significantly boost audiology services, something that is very much needed in the region.
Specsavers founder, Dame Mary Perkins said: ‘The Upton store has a strong team in place – we are really confident it will be a great success’.
As well as sight and hearing tests, the new store will provide a wide range of optical and audiology services and is equipped with four test rooms as well as a sound-proofed audiology booth.
The store also boasts OCT (optical coherence tomography), eye scanning equipment that is usually only found in hospitals. OCT technology produces a detailed scan of the eye, enabling early detection of eye diseases. The store stocks a wide selection of designer frames including Hugo Boss, Marc Jacobs, Balmain and Love Moschino.
To find out more or book an appointment at Specsavers in Upton, visit: https://www.specsavers.co.uk/stores/upton or call: 0151 559 1226
