We moved to Harland Works a year ago and everyone asks us how it has gone. I detect a subtext from a lot of these queries along the lines of what were you thinking?

Division (actually Devonshire) Street has historically been a fairly high profile place to be in Sheffield, especially for independent retailers and so moving somewhere with limited footfall - John Street - looks risky to some.

Actually it has been brilliant, we feel part of a strong community at Harland Works - there are 20 other businesses there - furniture makers, a yoga studio, a theatre company, people who make violins and bows, product designers, a pottery etc etc …

Division St had become a bit dominated by takeaways in the 5yrs we had been there and obviously footfall from Feb 2020 was very limited! The closure of John Lewis was a big deal as well and frankly it wasn’t worth the very high rent, that the London landlord wasn’t up for reducing to reflect the change in character of the street.

Existing customers that we have seen to date in our new home seem happy with it and it looks vey similar inside, apart from the addition of a second consulting room. This allows us to see more people, do more contact lens work and train up / develop optometrists who want to work our way.

Partnering with the café is nice too, by offering a free drink for everyone who books an eye test - the Darkwoods coffee is very nice. We also partner with events as well.

So, we love it and hoping you like it too.

Getting onto and optometry course, getting a good degree and passing professional exams is hard work. If you have done it, you are a highly knowledgeable, impressive person.

But, many optom jobs don't seem to recognise how much you have to offer. They just want you to see as many people as possible as quickly as possible, sell as many specs as possible and not question things too much. It's a bit rubbish

We were set up by me, as I hated all that and wanted to prove it could be different. 5+ yrs in I think we've made a decent stab at doing it differently. We want more optoms to enjoy their career more, get in touch for a chat - hello@eyeyesheffield.co.uk FAO Karl

Being independent is a bit trendy these days. Support your local trader hashtags are plentiful, nobody like the global monsters do they? I would argue we are “proudly independent” and admit to being pretty quick to join in with a bit of multiple bashing.

Optics in the UK is in flux (not the confusing Dr Who kind) with lots of independents selling to the Hakim group - owned by Imran Hakim, an optometrsit and Dragon’s Den alumni getting investment in his iTeddy in 2007. Their portfolio is numbered in the hundreds now and in Sheffield they have taken on Daybell and Choo, Inman’s and Gage’s - that we know of. I say “that we know of”, as from the outside you would not know anything has happened - I think most customers are unaware. It’s not obvious whatt Imran’s plan is, taking on Specsavers seems ambitious, but it’s a big change in the industry that intrigues me. Friends tell me people who have joined his group are happy with their decision, I’ve not spoken to anyone in Sheffield about how it’s going or why they did it - as indicated above, it’s all quite hush-hush, so nobody is tweeting about thier change in status - I wish them luck.

I am not critical of those who have sold out. It’s hard running a business yourself (Brexit, covid, Amazon don’t help) and it is nororiously hard to get a price for that reflects all the effort and tears that have gone in. I would certainly never rule out selling if the price was right. But, being independent is a big deal and losing independence is a big deal. We chose all our suppliers, nobody is questioning our performance on KPIs and our ethos is ours alone. We are not “managed by Excel”, as I like to put it and besides they might make me take my Barnard Castle sign down!