Our story

2004

May

Studying for his final exams at university, Jamie discovered he needed to wear glasses. After visiting his local optician he was so staggered by the £150 price tag that he set about trying to find out the real cost of making a pair of prescription glasses. He soon discovered that the mark-up was huge, and saw an opportunity for someone to offer a great value product and service at a fraction of the price.

After finding a laboratory to support his idea for providing better value prescription glasses, he set up shop in his parents' front room with friends and family helping out. Word began to spread and within two months of trading, the phone was ringing constantly, and the orders began pouring in. With thousands of enquiries by the end of his summer holidays, what had begun as a sideline had become a real business meeting a real need. Express Sight, the first online prescription glasses retailer was born.

September

After this phenomenal early success, Glasses Direct out-grew Jamie's parents' Wiltshire home and we decamped to our first office, a converted barn nearby. We also started recruiting our first staff. First on board was finance manager, Deidre Walker (who we nicknamed The Sheriff - because she kept law and order) to look after the pennies; office manager, Amy Kent, (aka Amy Kent); and customer service advisors to see that the rapidly increasing calls were being handled efficiently.

December

Time to make some noise. We found ourselves a great PR agency to tell the world about Glasses Direct - Brian MacLaurin Associates.

2005

January

Direct is officially launched to the press, with some great coverage in The Sunday Times, The Express, The Mirror and The Daily Mail. Hooray!

June

We appointed two clinical advisors, both ophthalmic surgeons, who helped raise our profile in the optical industry, set pioneering standards for operating on the internet, and help us understand the regulations of selling glasses. We also started recruiting dispensing opticians to support our aim to provide the best optical care for our customers.

By this point, we were busting at the seams. So we upped sticks and moved to a new office next door, with two floors and a lot more room.

All that extra breathing space seemed to have a positive effect on Jamie: he won Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 - our first award!

July

Orders were increasing rapidly and whilst we were providing a reliable service to customers when they placed their order we wanted to ensure we were keeping an equal control over the quality and delivery of our products at the other end. So in July 2005 we opened our first warehouse in Gloucester and recruited a full-time fulfillment team to run it.

Jamie won Wales and West Country Credit Suisse Entrepreneur of the Year 2005.

October

We'd long-hoped to offer customers a way of trying on glasses virtually. Well, we'd only gone and done it. After lots of development, CustomEyes was launched.

Jamie and Glasses Direct won two Natwest Startups Awards - Business of the Year 2005 and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2005. He was getting good at this.

November

More recruitment as we grew. This time, a small marketing team.

December

We completed our second investment round.

A great end to our first full year. The mulled wine was on us!

2006

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January

After meeting the former marketing director of EasyJet, and marketing director of the London 2010 Olympic bid, David Magliano, at a business event, Jamie asked him to join the Glasses Direct board.

March

With David Magliano on board, we plunged into our first big marketing campaign. The Specspensive campaign saw people dressed as sheep walking around Newcastle city centre handing out flyers and advising the public “Don't get fleeced by Specsavers”. Billboards, radio and local events created a lot of noise locally and beyond.

April

We'd long recognised a real need for a service that provided varifocal glasses to a wider audience and at a better price than our competition. Finally,we launched our varifocal service, working with our travelling opticians who visit customers at home or at work for a fitting.

We also completed a third investment round, and received our first shipment of glasses from China.

Jamie won Isambard Kingdom Brunel Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2006. Yep, still at it.

June

We started selling our first selection of designer glasses.

November

Gordon Brown spoke about Glasses Direct in his keynote address speech in Enterprise Week, and Jamie became an Ambassador for UK Enterprise.

2007

January

The New Year saw the total of unique visitors to our website reach 2 million.

In February, a Miss Montgomery ordered a Cushy frame and by doing so, placed our 100,000th order. Thank you, Miss Montgomery.

July

Glasses Direct was named a ‘Brand to Watch’ by the Superbrand Council.

August

We secured venture capital-backed investment from Index Ventures and Highland Capital Partners, allowing us to continue to grow and recruit an experienced senior team to lead us to the next stage of development.

September

We get our first chief operations officer, Jon Cumberlege (he'd helped setup Betfair) to oversee our customer service team, dispensing opticians, and fulfillment process.

October

The management, finance and marketing teams to a new office in London.

November

Scaling up the rest of the business was the next logical step, and after much searching for the right office, we found just the ticket in Swindon, and moved everyone under one roof again.

We now had a 40+ strong team there, taking orders, providing optical support and sending out prescription glasses every minute of the day. Apart from lunchtimes when they play ping pong.

November also welcomed marketing director, Phil Gates, to lead a newly-recruited specialist team dedicated to improving our relationship with you, our customers.

2008

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January

Happy new year indeed! Orders had more than doubled in two months. You loved our January sale, many of you ordering two or three pairs at a time.

What's in store for the rest of the year?

Well, we're running some exciting seasonal campaigns, launching a new range of products (we think you'll like them), developing new ways for you to try your glasses on at home. And really hoping to keep growing Glasses Direct by listening to you, our customers. Things are looking good!