Thursday 5 March marked a special milestone for Specsavers Australia and New Zealand as we officially opened our 400th Store at Specsavers Chifley Square in Sydney.

Our 400th store is an exciting milestone in the journey of Specsavers. We launched in Australia and New Zealand in 2008 promising to ‘change the face of optometry’ by providing a combination of accessible eye care and high quality, affordable eyewear for all. Since then across the two countries we have dispensed over 35 million pairs of glasses, performed a similar number of eye tests, and helped more than 800 current store partners get into business for themselves – the vast majority as first-time entrepreneurs.

From the word go in 2008, our ‘two pairs for one low price, always’ offer drove a step change in the market as optometry collectively moved to greater affordability, seven-day eye testing and store openings to keep pace with patients and customers.

The opening of our 400th store shows how Specsavers has continued to contribute to Australian and NZ job growth. Across both countries, our store partners currently employ well over 6000 store staff with each store generating an average of 16 current jobs. The Specsavers support offices in Port Melbourne and Auckland, together with our local field-teams, employ a further 550+ team members.

The new Sydney Chifley Square store is a fantastic addition to our store network. With significant room for expansion, it initially features two optical test rooms, dedicated space for OCT and visual field facilities and nine dispense points, making it easier than ever for customers in the Sydney CBD to access optometry services.

Specsavers Sydney Chifley Square Pty Ltd is owned and operated by Sasha Kempen, Gregory Braude and Greeshma Patel who also own and operate our Sydney Central and Sydney MetCentre stores and are thrilled to be the partners of our 400th store – and their third.

Each team member in all our stores are dedicated to providing personalised care to members of the community, who put their trust in Specsavers staff when it comes to their eye and hearing health needs.

As we open our 400th store, it gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect on our unique joint venture partnership model that has transformed the fortunes of hundreds of the optometrists and optical dispensers, giving them an opportunity to become business partners in their own business.

To celebrate the opening of our Sydney Chifley Square store, we threw a party at the store with special guest and Specsavers designer Alex Perry.

Alex hosted a street runway show featuring our Autumn Winter styles topped off by a brass funk band, both in the store and out on the streets! Followed by an official ribbon cutting, and a highlight to the guests was the coffee cart. Sydneysiders sipped on coffee and took our simple Urban eye test to see if they needed to go and get their eyes tested. In line with our mission of transforming eye health, the power of coffee put getting a routine eye test at Specsavers on the health agenda for working Australians.

Congratulations to Specsavers Chifley Square and the entire Specsavers team for this incredible achievement.