Business Excellence Award 2020

Independent group Urquhart Opticians celebrated this month after winning South West Scotland’s most prestigious business award.

The Ayrshire optometry group, which has practices in Kilmarnock, Ayr, Troon and Prestwick, was announced as the recipient of the 2020 Ayrshire Business Excellence Award, a unique accolade designed to recognise small to medium sized enterprises delivering excellence across all their operations. With a highly rigorous and lengthy application process, the Business Excellence Award requires applicants to evaluate their own business and performance, before being whittled down to a shortlist of three with the winner announced by the Ayrshire of Chamber of Commerce at their annual dinner. This year, the finalists were Urquhart Opticians, William Duncan Accountants and science and technology company Merck.

Established over a century ago, Urquhart Opticians was bought in 2014 by Business Partners Peter Telfer and Alistair Duff B.Sc. (Hons) MCOptom. Since then, the group has transformed with a capital programme bringing in new optics equipment, extensive practice remodelling, robust processes, innovative marketing and a renewed commitment to people development which has seen the team grow to 24, and turnover more than double.

Business Partner Peter Telfer commented: “The Ayrshire Business Excellence Award requires one of the most thorough and rigorous application processes we’ve seen, delving into every aspect of the business, our ethos and our drive. It gave us the opportunity to assess the huge transformation our capital programme and ‘Eye Can’ approach have brought to the business, and to develop an even clearer focus of where our continuous improvement can lead us. We are absolutely thrilled to be honoured in this way and are delighted to be flying the flag for both optometry and retail in such esteemed company.”

Alistair Duff B.Sc. (Hons) MCOptom added: “When Peter and I first took on Urquharts we had an ambitious vision for patient care, customer service and business practice. Thanks to our amazing and dedicated team we’ve been able to realise this, and this award is very much a recognition of all the hard work and dedication of every team member.”

Urquhart Opticians has been delivering eyecare in Ayrshire for over 100 years, and today has practices in Kilmarnock, Troon, Prestwick and Ayr.

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