A piece of my family history
This is a clip from the Liverpool Echo of October 14, 2008 which my sister Joan alerted me to.
A 126-YEAR-OLD Liverpool optician’s, founded by my grandfather, Bernard Conlon, is aiming to expand by almost 50% over the next two to three years. He was my mother’s father.
When I was fifteen, I worked at the Mount Pleasant store for a time as office junior and general dogsbody. I used to do filing, make tea (yes, tea again!), run errands, and take the completed pairs of spectacles to the Rodney Street eye specialists to verify before we wrote postcards to the clients to tell them their glasses were ready. My duties were carried out under the strict watch of Miss Brough, the Manageress.
Conlons was founded in 1882 by Bernard Conlon in Mount Pleasant, which is now the headquarters for the 19-store business. The firm now extends from Rhyl, north Wales to Dumfries in Scotland.The company has four Merseyside outlets and strategic director Peter Barton, 31, great-great grandson of the founder, says more may follow in the drive to open up to eight more stores.
Conlons’ main Liverpool store, in Ranelagh Street, is the template for the expansion, having just undergone a facelift and rebranding. It will be rolled out to the rest of the chain, which employs 165 staff.
Mr Barton said the change from green to a new corporate colour scheme of white, black and red portrays a cleaner look to highlight the brand values and emphasise the fashion element of stock, which includes Chanel, Dior, Prada, Nike, Hackett and exclusive line Ko Yamato.
He says the store also has the city’s first Macuscope, one of only 11 in the UK.
The machine measures macular pigment and can highlight age-related macular degeneration, the UK’s biggest cause of blindness.
Mr Barton, who returned to the family business after working in London for global management consultancy Accenture, said: “I am focusing on three areas – customer service, which I think is why we have thrived for so long; health, with our Macuscope; and fashion.
“We are constantly visiting trade shows to source the best designers and range. I am confident we have the best range of glasses and sunglasses in Liverpool.”
Mr Barton is continuing the work of his father Mike, who began the expansion drive in the 1970s and led contact lens innovation in the north of England with the promotion of daily disposable lenses in the early 1980s, which are now the norm.
It gave me quite a thrill to read about the progress of this firm which had started out so small. My father’s side of the family were in the optical business too. My father’s name was Stopforth, and his brother, Peter, worked for Paxton’s opticians in another part of the city. My recent cataract surgeries at UCLA by the incredible Dr. Keith Miller weren’t even a dream in those days. I had worn glasses since about two years old, and now only need dime store glasses for reading. The improvement is amazing. Who knew?…
