Bill Moir, Managing Director and EVP Canada for Specsavers is back on the podcast as this Vancouver-based international retailer celebrates the opening of its 100th store in Canada, including a successful launch in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, with plans for expansion into Manitoba. Together, we unpack the successful business model and marketing strategies that have powered Specsavers rapid growth in Canada, lessons learned, and their winning formula for better eyecare for Canadians.
Bill Moir, Managing Director and EVP Canada for Specsavers is back on the podcast as this Vancouver-based international retailer celebrates the opening of its 100th store in Canada, including a successful launch in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, with plans for expansion into Manitoba. Together, we unpack the successful business model and marketing strategies that have powered Specsavers rapid growth in Canada, lessons learned, and their winning formula for better eyecare for Canadians.
About Bill
Bill Moir is the Managing Director of Specsavers Canada. He began his career at Specsavers in 2017 as Trading Director for the Australian and New Zealand market following 20 years of executive board experience working across various trading, marketing and eCommerce roles in the UK, Europe and Australia. In early 2020, Bill transitioned to the role of Group eCommerce and Digital Director for Specsavers, leading the group strategy for eCommerce during COVID. Since moving from Melbourne to Vancouver in early 2021 with his family, Bill and the Specsavers team have seen the opening of over 100 locations in Ontario, Alberta and B.C., with stores in Manitoba coming soon. Today, Specsavers is one of the fastest growing network of eyecare professionals in Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 00:05
Welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. My name is Michael LeBlanc, and I am your host. This podcast is produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
On this episode Bill Moir, Managing Director and EVP Canada for Specsavers is back on the podcast as this Vancouver-based international retailer celebrates the opening of its 100th store in Canada, including a successful launch in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, with plans for expansion into Manitoba.
Together, we unpack the successful business model and marketing strategies that have powered Specsavers rapid growth in Canada, lessons learned, and their winning formula for better eye care for Canadians. Let's listen in now.
Bill, welcome back to The Voice of Retail podcast. How are you doing?
Bill Moir 00:48
Very well. Thanks, Michael. How are you?
Michael LeBlanc 00:50
Fantastic. It's been a while since we've last spoken. I think you had just arrived on the shores-, on the great shores of-, of Canada, both yourself in the business so I'm excited to catch up. I think there's been a lot going on with the-, with the Specsavers business.
Bill Moir 01:05
Yeah, we've been very busy. I think we just-, over a year ago we spoke, we've been-, yeah, we've been very busy since then. Having fun but keeping busy.
Michael LeBlanc 01:12
Fantastic. And are you still based in the West? You're still based in Vancouver?
Bill Moir 01:17
Yeah. Still out in Vancouver, although as a business we're a nice spread across three provinces. So, we're in BC, Alberta and Ontario, but I'm still based in Vancouver myself.
Michael LeBlanc 01:27
Oh, fantastic. All right. Well, let's-, let's-, let's talk about you for a little bit for those who may not have heard our first-, our first interview, who are you and tell us a bit about how you got to be you and what you do for a living?
Bill Moir 01:41
Sure. Well, I was born originally in Edinburgh in Scotland and so-, hence this strange accent, I'll try to speak slowly so everyone can understand me. I worked in the UK for about 20 years. I was in retail, mainly consumer electronics. I worked for brands like Kiva and Google and Dell in lots of different functions and then about 12 years ago moved to Australia where I worked for calls one of the big supermarkets there and around their marketing strategy before I joined Specsavers in Australia, actually, eight years ago, originally as trading director for Australian, New Zealand business, and that was great time actually about 10 years after Australia Specsavers has entered the market. So, we had some real exciting milestones. We broke through 50% market share level and that sort of stuff.
Bill Moir 02:25
And then I moved to a group eCommerce role and eCommerce and digital role within Specsavers. It was just run about the time of COVID-, COVID actually, I lead our efforts globally to make sure we can still service our customers remotely while we were in lockdown in 11 different countries around the world with things like ecommerce and remote telecare. And then when we decided in 2021 the time was right for Specsavers to move to Canada, I jumped to the opportunity so I came over to Vancouver to lead our entry into the new market as the managing director moved here with my family and in the last few years just really been building the Specsavers team, leading the growth plans to launch Specsavers to Canada, and it's been a really busy few years but going really well set it beginning we've now got over 100 stores across BC, Alberta and Ontario so it's been very busy.
Michael LeBlanc 03:12
Oh, fantastic. You've got a lot done in a short amount of time now is-, for Specsavers is this their first international expansion? Where else can you be found in the world as a retailer?
Bill Moir 03:22
We are in-, this is our 11th country. So, we're-, we started in the UK back in 1984. So, it's our 40-year anniversary, in fact, this month. So, UK and Ireland, we're also moved to Australia, New Zealand and then we're in about six different countries in Northern Europe. So, all the Scandinavian countries, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, along with the Netherlands.
Michael LeBlanc 03:44
All right. So let's, let's talk about when you land on the shores of a country like Canada, and the organization has assessed that there's an opportunity here, what are the, the key strategic steps that you take and milestones that you get to 100 stores this quickly, what contributes that to the what contributes to that success in addition to your savvy leadership and a great team, but what are the-, what would be the anchor that kind of be chatting because it's not always successful, we've seen many come and go and not expand the way that you have.
Bill Moir 04:15
Yeah, no, that's true. I think one of the-, one of the things that makes-, makes us different is we're a privately owned and purpose driven business as well. So, we're led by optometrists, so we don't answer to shareholders. That means we can make long term decisions that benefit our partners and people who want our stores and also benefit our patients and our customers. So, we always start-, we always start with what's the right, compelling proposition for our customers. We want to build something that's really unique for customers and patients in Canada, they can't get anywhere else. So, we wanted to make sure we had best in class clinical care. So, we introduced something called the no CT scan as part of every eye exam. It's kind of a hospital grade 3D scan of the back of the eye. We did that standard and we coupled that with high quality but really affordable eyewear with glasses. Our goal was less than $69.
Bill Moir 05:01
So we always start with what's right for customers and then the other thing that makes Specsavers unique is that in our model, every store is jointly owned and operated by two passionate store partners generally one that-, one that's an optometrist, and the other one's an optician or a retailer, we make sure that they're looking after the needs of their customers in their loc-, local community every day giving great levels of service and we give them really comprehensive business support we give training for the team, we'll fund 100% of all the startup costs for their brand new store environment as well, and set them up for success and make sure we're on the right path for profitable growth and that they're the two essences racing for customers, or partners, but then we, we add to that, a really heavy investment in our award winning marketing.
Bill Moir 05:44
So, we've launched the 'Should Have Gone to Specsavers' tagline into Canada, which is recently into Canadians and that drives new patient bookings customer traffic and that's meant we've now become one of the most recognized optical brands in Canada in just two years. So, customers are loving the proposition. The stores we set up have been really successful. To give you an idea, a typical Specsavers store generates about just over 1.5 million in retail sales in their first year and that's, as well, ahead of the average for even established optical stores in Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 06:13
Interesting. Let's talk about the autonomous for a sec, the business partner end of-, now they as professionals would have lots of choices, I suppose and partners that they could make. Why-, why and what have you seen in terms of trends for them coming to your side of the-, of the equation? What is it that they find so compelling? You mentioned one thing which kind of jumps out, which is the funding or the financing from your organization upfront that-, that probably ticks one box, but I'm sure it doesn't tick all the boxes. What-, how are you winning with optometrists who, you know, they look at it kinda, I don't know, it's businesspeople, you'd look at a new entrant and go, I don't know where they're gonna stick. I mean, you're a global business, but you know what I mean, like-, like what are those other boxes that are getting ticked off that are making you so successful?
Bill Moir 06:57
Yeah, there's countless things, as you say that it's-, it's the main difference and mostly, they have the opportunity-, the opportunity to support and own a high volume, profitable business. That's one of the key things and we-, as you said, we cover the startup costs each location, so they have really comprehensive support, more support they would normally have, I think in another business to really make sure they're successful and they can focus on carrying the needs of their customers not on the day to-, not worry about a day to day of running a business, we will help and support a lot of that for them.
Bill Moir 07:27
We find that that means we're able to actually support a lot of first-time business owners because you make that first step really easy for them, but we're also finding that actually because the business model is so attractive. From a customer point of view, many optometrists who joined us have successfully transitioned from their own independent practice, as well, which they've converted to next year in store. It's also something about how we run our business. So, we have a network of independent optometrists who come and work with us and they have a say in how we operate the business. So, we're constantly working with our optometrists to develop our offer. We have these groups called the optometrist-, optometrists lead steering groups, which operate in each province, and we use them to advise and consult with us on how to develop and grow our offer going forward. So, the back of that, I think that's one of the reasons we've been so successful. We've got over 200, optometrists, 250, opticians, and over 1000 eye care consultants on board, meaning we were actually this fastest growing network of eye care professionals in the whole of Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 08:31
So, you would bring these folks together either virtually or in-, or in real life, as the kids will say, what kind of feedback would you get? I mean, you know, you're a global platform. So part of that means, you know, there is a format and a structure, but you know, what, where do you find the flexibility, nation by nation is-, that it's informed by your optometrist and your retail partners, how do they how do they feed that to you and how much wiggle room so to speak do you have when they say, listen, it's different. Everybody says it's different, right, it's different here in Ontario, it's different here and wherever. How do you-, how do you take all that in and, and fix the model without breaking it, I guess?
Bill Moir 09:06
Yeah, it is different and that's for us. We're a partnership like business. I think that's-, that's really what it's about, but working together in partnership. We're not-, that our model is always flexible. We don't have a fixed model that we just implement the same everywhere. We wouldn't be successful if we did that. We adapt on a number of different levels. First of all, we adapt by province you have to, every province is different. Regulations are different. Mindset culture is different. So, we need to work really closely with the optometry steering group, and the partner Advisory Council, the other two groups we use to really make sure we're adapting our offer for the needs of-, of the-, off the professionals and our partners in that province, as well as the customers in that province.
Bill Moir 09:46
The other thing that makes our business model again different and flexible as a five each door individual are owned by-, owned by our optometry, optician and retail partners. So, they need to adapt-, be able to adapt to the needs of their local community or business owners. So, we'll support them. We, you know, I look after the team at what we call the support office. Not the head office, it's the support office. Our role is to support our partners to ensure their business is successful, and they have the flexibility to run their business in the way that best meets-, meets our customers’ needs.
Michael LeBlanc 10:16
So it's not like you arrive to a country where eyeglasses were absent, and many would say they were available at all levels, you know, it all spectrum of price points, what-, is it-, it's got to be more than the price point and you've been describing the kind of partnerships and people who know their local market is that is that what's gotten you through or over the hurdle, really, is that kind of that mix of a great price point, but again, there's price points that were pretty good here before what-, what is it that you think is really catching with the Canadian consumer?
Bill Moir 10:47
I think part of the problem is Canadians, we've been see-, looking at the market for a while, we've seen that Canadians aren't visiting their optometrist as often as they should, and we did a survey recently. So, the Specsavers survey showed that 38% of Canadians of adults say they're overdue for an eye exam. So that's it and that's a real problem, because 75% of vision loss can be prevented or treated and that's what we're-, that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to turn this around by removing the barrier to customers, making sure quality eye care stylish eyewear is more accessible, and more affordable for people.
Bill Moir 11:21
So I fell into the-, the eye care market in Canada and we've seen that there's been a lot of consolidation over the last few years and that's resulted in less choice and worst value, quite frankly, for customers and our aim is to turn that around to give Canadians more choice and to give them high quality eyewear, and exceptional service, but integrate store environment alongside great value eyewear and that we were removing the barriers for them having eye exams to because all our locations are owned and run by optometrists and opticians and retailers, we've been able to make sure they're adapting to the needs of their customers in each community and that's why we've been welcomed so much in Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 11:57
Interesting. 71% brand awareness in, you know, just under-, under two years pretty impressive. When-, when it comes down to local or-, do you find that your local partners are, are they asking you at store support for multiple languages? Like how they are, you know, a big feature of Canada now is always has been but there's been an influx of new Canadians. So how do you find your partners adapting to that?
Bill Moir 12:23
Yeah, we do-, we’re different in that, you know, as of yesterday, 73%, it was looking at the numbers yesterday. So, it's growing every day, our brand awareness, which is great.
Michael LeBlanc 12:30
That's great.
Bill Moir 12:32
We do a bit of both. So, we do quite a lot on a national level and the advertising tends to be quite light hearted, entertaining, advertising comms, we do. So, it keeps eye care top of mind, encouraging people to look after their eye care. We launched, as I said, 'Should have gone Specsavers', as a catch phrase this last year, it's gone down really well, people are enjoying the ad. In fact, we're launching our new national ad next-, next month as well and there's probably two other bits, quite right. You see, every community is different. There's a lot of people who speak different languages. So, we'll adapt and put multi language comms and advertising in stores in individual locations where it's relevant for that community and for that customer base, but the other thing, big-, big thing about our brand is why I think it's grown, and we've been so successful so quickly.
You can't, you can't buy that. It's not just about advertising. It's about-, most of our success is word of mouth, it's-, and that's driven by the exceptional care service value that our store partners and team members give to customers and local communities every single day and that's really resulted in our customers becoming brand advocates for the facts of his brand and the combination of that, along with advertising this relevant for-, for customers has been success overall.
Michael LeBlanc 13:41
Yeah, fantastic. So, let's talk about technology for a little bit. So, I want to talk about it at two levels. One is the technology that goes into you being able to provide eyeglasses at the-, at the rate you do and then the second is the kind of technology you-, you think of from a retail perspective, you know, just last week's episode of pod. We were talking about RFID, for example, to keep great controls of-, of inventory is one popular technology. How are you thinking about technology first, I guess in the production of the product, but then more broadly, in terms of what and how you see yourself making or helping retail-, retailers be successful with modern retail technology.
Bill Moir 14:20
Yeah, well, we do. I mean, our clinics are getting fitted with advanced clinical technology. So we have a machine called an optical coherence tomography, an OCT is basically a CT scan for aids, early detection of sight threatening conditions like glaucoma, diabetes, doctors are-, doctors love that, love access to that technology and the impact it makes on patient outcomes and we offer that a standard part of every eye exam in Specsavers, which is quite unique in Canada, but then we use other technologies, other clinical technology so things like visual fields machines or ultra-wide field cameras, to make sure that we've got the best possible clinical care for our patients. Retailers-, on the retail side, not just retail but also our patients also making sure we've got the right tools in place for them to dispense.
Bill Moir 15:10
So, we have a number of custom-built tools that we operate as part of the patient and customer journey, which lets our opticians make sure we're really accurate with our dispensing. So, we have automated dispensing tools on our iPads that they can use with customers to help customers, make sure we're taking all their accurate measurements for them, but they can also help with customers and walk them through their product selection process as well. So, they can go on an app, and we'll take them through a journey to make sure that they've got the right style-, style and type of lenses for the products as well. So, we take them on a kind of interactive journey in store as well to make sure to get the best possible product for them.
Michael LeBlanc 15:49
So, you got some cool brand partnerships, right? Adidas and Kylie Minogue that would be one that you might perhaps have brought over from, from Australia, is it-, what percentage of people migrate to this, that's-, that's to give them a choice and there's some upsells, I suppose in the process is that with the, your collaboration does and looks like with those big brands?
Bill Moir 16:11
Yeah, we tend to find, I mean, the Specsavers brand is about having a wide appeal and having something for everyone. So, we've got our own brand and product, which is incredibly high quality comes to all through our own supply chain, which is great. So, we can give customers not only great quality, but also great and-, great and-, great value as well, but some people want brands as well.
So, we have a range of different brands across-, across the board, some of which we've got from our other markets, as you see. So Alex Perry, who's a designer that we work with in Australia, we've launched him now in Canada, he was over here last year with some stores, and we did a great feature with our magazine with him, but we've also done-, we've also got some relatively well known brands from Canada, Marc Jacobs, we've got some other new exciting launches, which we can't really share yet, unfortunately, coming out over the course this year, we've got some good Canadian brands, which we'll be launching with this year as well. So yeah, it's about having something for everyone and different, different styles, different brands and different price points.
Michael LeBlanc 17:10
I guess that's the challenge. I mean, I walk into, I'll say, an average eyeglass place and they start to look a little bit the same. I mean, I like my eyeglasses to be a little bit distinctive and I guess some percentage of people will, will also like that others will kind of take two or three, what-, is that the way you think of it as well as like, we've got to make them distinctive, but maybe not too distinctive, but you know, how do we make them look different from all the other-, you know, there's a large variety of assortment out there. I mean, people come to you for a bunch of reasons, but do you guys, you know, is that a centralized process? Do you guys put some input into that being a Canadian fast-growing part of an international organization?
Bill Moir 17:49
Yeah, the range we have in Canada is very much customized to the Canadian market, what we-, again what we found, because of the consolidation we've seen in the eyewear industry in Canada, there's been less choice for customers quite often, you'll walk into different optical outlets, and you'll see pretty much the same range or the same brands from-, from lots of different players. So, we want your dreams to stand out, we want to be unique. So, we're quite different in terms of brands that we bring to market for consumers. We're constantly evaluating a range. So, we've got over 1200 products in most of our stores. We change about 500 in the year-, every year, so 50% of the range changes every year. And we do that to make sure we're adapting to customers’ needs and to get anything from shapes as different trends happen or different color trends. That can be sizes. As-, as you know, we got the right size for the customer base that we're servicing. There's a lot of different changes like that, we're constantly evaluating the range and changing it to make sure we're meeting customers’ needs.
Michael LeBlanc 17:52
What's next? What's-, you're in three provinces, you know, you're on a growth trajectory, but how do you moderate that so that you grow successfully, what's next for the business?
Bill Moir 18:57
Probably-, probably three things, I suppose the first will continue to grow new locations. So, in our existing provinces, we've got we've got loads, that will be 110 stores by the end of this week and that's-
Michael LeBlanc 19:09
It feels like we'll have more stores by the end of the conversation, your market shares going up, your stores going up.
Bill Moir 19:15
We might well be, but that's just Ontario and BC and Alberta but we're launching in Manitoba later this year as well which is great and that'll help us increase access to eyecare for more Canadians just by being-, being accessible for Canadians to come and see this Specsavers proposition and we'll consider other provinces as well that we're not in yet, as well. Then it's about growing our initial stores, our initial stores are doing really well. We'll continue to grow the customer base for these stores, have become-, into the second and third year of business. So, we're seeing really strong growth. In fact, the first Specsavers stores we opened in Canada were still on Vancouver Island, it's forecast this year to care for 15,000 patients and customers this year and also achieve over four and a half million dollars in-, in retail revenue.
Bill Moir 19:58
So, it's almost six times higher than before we converted them to Specsavers, so the next thing is growing our existing stores, and another thing is just continuously expanding our services. So, last year we introduced Myopia management with our partners. We've introduced tele-optometry services and some areas where it's hard for customers to access our brand and being the largest optometry business in the world, we're able to draw on our scale constantly to innovate. So, we've got lots of projects on the go, to us-, we look forward to supporting doctors in the network and how they can impact eye health on a much larger scale across Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 20:33
So, you've been here two years, basically, what-, what advice from what you've learned, I mean, you come so to speak to the market with a fresh set of eyes and you know what advice you have for your fellow retailers about being successful in the-, in the Canadian retail market?
Bill Moir 20:49
I think the big thing we-, we've always been-, as a business, we're actually quite a humble business. Even though we're the largest optometry owned business in the world, we don't know it all and we need to make sure that whatever we do adapt to the needs of customers. So, nothing else. We're a partnership lead business, and we're a customer focused business. Our purpose is to change lives to better sight. In order to do that we need to be accessible to people and we need to make sure we're adapting our model, our proposition, our partnership offer to meet the needs of the local market, we can't just assume that what we do in another country or another region, Specsavers will work here for the one, we need to be listening to, and love that listening to people taking on board feedback and making sure we're constantly changing and adapting.
Michael LeBlanc 21:41
Listen say whatever-, whatever that formula is and that sounds like a pretty great formula. It's working well for you. So congratulations and listen, thanks for taking time out of no doubt a busy day to join me in the mic for The Voice of Retail was great to catch up and you know, I think if we do this next year-, next year you'll-, you know, I don't know how many you'll have by them, but you're on such a great trajectory. So, it's really congratulations. Thanks again for joining me on The Voice of Retail podcast real treat to catch up and I wish you continued success.
Bill Moir 22:08
Thank you very much, Michael.
Michael LeBlanc 22:09
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Voice of Retail. If you haven't already followed on your favorite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically each week and be sure to check out my other retail industry media properties, the Remarkable Retail podcast with Steve Dennis, and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast.
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, senior retail advisor, keynote speaker, ReThink Retail: 2023 Global Top Retail Influencer. If you want more content or to chat, follow me on LinkedIn.
Safe travels everyone.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Canada, customers, optometrists, stores, retail, brands, Canadians, business, market, adapt, partners, province, successful, launched, great, people, work, eyeglasses, technology, opticians