Spectacle Warehouse recently moved into their own free-standing building in Atterbury, Pretoria. At 460 square meters, it is arguably the biggest free-standing optometric practice in South Africa. The Spectacle Warehouse in Kenilworth, Cape Town is bigger, but not free standing.

The building is unique, in that it was constructed from Light Frame Steel (this means there is not a single brick in the entire building) and only took six months to erect. The LFS building has featured in two trade magazines.

Much attention was given to create an environmentally friendly building. From a green and welcoming garden to the actually real greens installed in the frame display units. There is a borehole plus rain water is recycled and used as “grey water” in the building for example, in the cutting lab, toilets, kitchen and irrigation.

Careful planning was required for the relocation. The challenge was to align the completion date of the new building, to co-inside with the last day of trading in the old premises, but allowing one month to restore the old premises for the land lord. The initial date was planned for 1 August 2017, but needed to move forward by one month, to allow for the restoration. This could only be achieved with the LSF building technique.

The concern with relocation is always the potential loss of turn over. Pieter Naudé, one of the shareholders, says: “We had in fact a slight increase in turn over since the relocation. By communicating over time with our patient base, we could ensure that everyone was aware of what we were doing. The new building has also become a talking point among patients, which helped.”

One of the pillars of the Spectacle Warehouse concept is selection. There are 3188 frames on display. The on-site lab and Lens Casting facility ensures same day service even for multi focal prescriptions. There are six consulting rooms and the service includes all the specialties of optometry. The rooms are fitted with all the state of the art equipment.