Meet the owner: Neil Heyes, Heyes Opticians

You may have noticed that Heyes Opticians have featured on the back of our magazine for quite some time now, so we thought it would be great to catch up with the owner, Neil, to see how he’s been doing since lockdown.

Neil first opened the doors to his Skelmersdale branch in 2010 when he purchased his own childhood opticians, Kirk’s, which was originally based on Clayton Street. In 2012, Neil then relocated to the Sandy Lane branch and began renovations to refurbish the store. Neil previously had a branch in Burscough, which he opened in 2000, and also one in Ormskirk town centre, both of which are still there today.

Hey, Neil, how have things been since lockdown?

It’s been really good, thank you! We are operating at about 70% of what we normally would at the moment, this is due to us having to extend the appointment times to add in extra cleaning between patients to help keep everyone safe. We now leave 40 minutes per test, which of course affects the volume of patients we can see in a day, but we are just so glad to be back doing what we love, and helping people see better.

How did lockdown affect your business?

We never closed throughout lockdown, but we couldn’t take general appointments. We still had the phone lines open and we were operating for emergency appointments. It was mostly people who had major issues with their vision, and we were still testing those who were key workers, such as drivers, nurses, doctors, etc. We acted almost like a triage over the telephone for anyone who had vision issues. We also delivered spectacles and contact lenses through our delivery service throughout lockdown, which was great to still be able to do.

I have really been enjoying your social media posts lately, we love your humour!

Yes, my wife is really good at the social media side of things! We know people need a bit of upliftment at the moment and we enjoy offering a piece of that as and when we can!

Speaking about upliftment, I used to really enjoy your bright shirts, I’m sure they’ll be missed now you have to wear PPE?!

Don’t worry about that, my wife studied fashion and design and she has actually made me some fantastic (and fashionable!) new scrubs! I have them with monkeys wearing glasses, cheerful plants, fantastic flowers… all sorts! Just because we are having to wear PPE doesn’t mean we can’t keep it bright and cheery… and of course fashionable!

That’s amazing! Lastly, what message would you like to give to anyone reading this interview?

We just want to let people know we are open for business and that we can now welcome you in to our safe and comfortable environment! Your safety is our priority and so everyone is asked to wear a mask in-store and throughout the testing. We are so glad to be back, and we want our customers, old and new, to know that we put their safety first, but still offer style, affordability, and a great service! Oh, and we have a fancy new machine in-store now which measures how thick your cornea is… which is great for us when testing your eye health!

Skelmersdale 01695 723397

Burscough 01695 892200

Ormskirk 01695 573476