Specsavers’ Port Melbourne manufacturing facility has reached a new Australia / New Zealand milestone.
The facility dispatched its 25-millionth pair of glasses on 23 April 2017 – just over a year after passing the 20 million mark in March 2016 – with the milestone pair being a design from the new Kylie Minogue Eyewear range that launched earlier this year.
The achievement is indicative of how Specsavers’ growth has accelerated since entering the Australian and New Zealand markets 10 years ago.
Specsavers dispatched its first pair of glasses for the ANZ region in March 2007 in the planning phase prior to retail launch, when it was testing a range of lenses and frames on a wholesale basis with leading Australian independent practices. Within eight years – by January 2015 – the business had completed 15 million orders. However, it only took two years and three months to complete its next 10 million jobs.
This year’s dispatch volume is another indicator of how far the business has come. In 2009, Specsavers celebrated the first time it had dispatched one million glasses in a single year. By comparison, the Port Melbourne facility processed the same volume within the first three months of 2017, with more than 1.5 million jobs completed as at the end of April.
This strong start follows on from another exceptional year for Specsavers’ production and supply arm.
“The expanding Specsavers retail network continues to push the boundaries regarding customer value with record-breaking volumes throughout 2016,” stated Ian Lindsey, Head of Manufacturing for the Asia Pacific region.
“Total record order volume through the Port Melbourne hub during the year saw a total of 4,434,724 pairs of spectacles completed and dispatched. A staggering 95,000 orders were also generated during the last four trading days of the year – beating the previous year’s record by some distance.”
Ian noted that Specsavers had continued its record-smashing trend this year.
“We have seen numerous records come and go but over 28,000 jobs leaving the facility in one day was very scary, requiring nearly 140 sacks to enable the courier to transport the spectacles,” he said.
“The week ending 22 January also saw over 115,000 new spectacle orders generated in a single week, which was a new record for our Australia and New Zealand store network.”
