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Showing posts with label entrpreneurs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entrpreneurs. Show all posts

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Glasses Direct takes on the giant opticians

It is very interesting to note the aggressive price stance being taken in the latest Specsavers press campaign.
Full pages featuring "A massive range for less than £40" - at the "UK's most trusted Optician"
[Source: Readers Digest Most Trusted Brands Survey 2007].
I think this is all very flattering for Glasses Direct, the tiny eCommerce upstart founded by Jamie Murray Wells and backed by Index and TAG amongst others.
A concerted campaign by the UK's leading opticians may slow Glasses Direct down a little but a price war is probably the last thing the high street operators need right now.

The fact is that as more and more consumers start to understand that there is relatively little mystery in buying subscription glasses on the web then Glasses Direct with their - "from the factory to the consumer" approach - is likely to keep taking market share.

Jamie has built his business on a lot more than price. The range is expanding rapidly to embrace fashion products and the service and quality that he is offering is superb.

Glasses is demonstrating a most interesting disruptive approach to a market which has paid little attention to price until recently.




Thursday, March 22, 2007

Another busy OpenCoffee Club

Saul wasn't able to be there this morning so I promised I'd blog some impressions and observations.
The numbers of attendees has held up very well. I'd estimate at least 80 over the 2 hours.
Interesting to see that new networks are are starting to tap into the facility. The London Business School was well represented for the first time.
There were headhunters: - BYT (Agnes Greaves) and The Forsyth Group (Bretton Putter);
VCs: Nick Brisbourne of Esprit, Kevin Commoli of Accel, Danny Rimer of Index
Ad agencies, bloggers, experienced entrepreneurs and first timers.

Lots of serious looking meetings, presentations and demos were taking place.

Agnes has promised me that there are many more female entrepreneurs in London than are turning up at OpenCoffee so I've challenged her to get them there.