Founder’s ‘ethos’ helps opticians mark 70 years
AN OPTICIANS shop is celebrating 70 years thanks to the “ethos” instilled in the business by its founder.
Trained pharmacist Edward Barnet Pepper set up Barnet Pepper Caernarfon in 1948 after returning home from Swaffham in Norfolk, converting his father’s drapers store after his death.
It started out as a pharmacy that performed sight examinations upstairs, with Mr Pepper supported only by a single receptionist and a pharmacist.
He was joined by his son Michael in 1972 and the following year they dropped the pharmacy side and converted the Pool Street building into a stateof-the-art optometric practice.
It is still going strong and after two extensions to the building now employs 14 staff - who take care of hundreds of patients.
Michael, 69, who still works two days a week, said: “When my father started his days were full on, six days a week, his lunch was spent covering the break of the pharmacist.
“His work was amazing and the whole ethos here is his ethos, patient first, quality, and do thr best you can for the patient. He is responsible for our success.”
One thing that did change when Michael arrived was the working hours.
He said: “It was my decision in 72, I said I’m not working Sat- urdays. His eyes lit up and it was a revelation for him.
“We decided that if staff are happy and having every weekend off makes them happy, then they will provide a better service.
“We still don’t open Saturdays which is pretty unusual in this industry.”
They must be doing something right with a few patients from 1948 still coming today - and many staff also staying for decades. There are also patients who travel considerable dis- tances to visit. Michael said: “We have people who come here from Cardiff, London and even France.
“There is a couple that come from London, stay in Premier Inn, have a sight test and then go back.
“I feel bad they do that and feel the pressure because they have come all this way.
“They have all lived here at some point and when they move away still want to come back.
“It is not me because others see them, it is the ethos of the whole practice. There are still even a few customers that have come here from the very start.”
He remains super-fit and continues to run triathlons but will ease off with work in the coming years. He though has no concerns about the future of the opticians. He said: “It will continue with the same ethos that my father had. We have opticians who have been here 20 years and receptionists for 30 years so that service will not change.
“The biggest change over the years is the technology, we have tried to keep ahead of the game.
“What the machines do now you would not have believed possible a few years ago.”