Fenland Business Awards: Harrison Coley Optician named Independent Retailer of the Year

An opticians practice that has been in the heart of the community for many years was the winner of this year’s Independent Retailer of the Year award.

A smart move a number of years ago by optometrist Vik Measura, current owner of Harrison Coley Opticians in Elwyn Road, March put his firm ahead of the crowd.

He and his team were, like all the winners, amazed to be going home with the trophy, but he sees the Fenland Business Awards as a way of getting the message about what his opticians has to offer patients out there.

Not only is that a friendly service, but also a revolutionary eye treatment that could end a patient’s need to wear glasses.

Vik, an optometrist for the past 18 years, who took over Harrison Coley 13 years ago, said it is great to be able to talk about See Smart Non-surgical Vision Correction.

This is a way of correcting shortsightedness without laser eye surgery.

With a waiting list of four to five months, Vik is seeing the success of introducing the treatment, which can work within 14 days and it all happens while you sleep.

Vik explained: “It’s a bit like wearing braces for your eyes - See Smart aligners work in a similar way to braces and it is great that the Fenland Business Awards have given us a platform to raise awareness of this innovation.

“The award itself means a lot to us and it is nice to be the winner tonight. We recently reached the final of the National Optician Awards and were in the final four from over 1,200 opticians from all over the country - on that occasion we were runners-up - so it is great to be taking the trophy home.”

There were two finalists: Harrison Coley and Gaea’s Soul. Judges looked at customer service, market and customer engagement, products and services innovation, ability to adapt to consumer trends and growth plans.

It was presented by Jonathan Tewson of Iliffe Media.