James Murray Wells

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It’s only been two years since entrepreneur James Murray Wells (23) launched his ground-breaking business www.glassesdirect.co.uk but in that time he has rewritten the rules and shaken the optical industry to its roots.

Conceived as an idea while he was at University, and launched in the front room of his parent’s house, Glasses Direct entered the market with the aim of providing cut price prescription glasses over the internet.

Because it was a new idea the optical industry said it wouldn’t work, but today Glasses Direct is the largest direct-seller of glasses in the world, selling a pair every seven minutes around the clock, with a multi million pound turnover, and the company is forecasting sales north of £10m by 2008. The headquarters of the business have been visited by three international CEOs and Chairmen of global optical chains within the past year. Talks are underway for a worldwide brand rollout and the possibility of a glassesdirect.com USA operation is being mooted.

Already in the UK, glassesdirect.co.uk has proved the critics wrong by not only proving there is an internet marketplace for prescription glasses, but by introducing the sale of varifocals, and launching a sister company Contacts Direct.

Other plans for Glasses Direct include white-labeling initiatives with some of the largest household names in UK retailing including a well-known supermarket chain, launching a range of designer frames from brands such as Storm and Diesel, doubling its IT staff to cope with growth, and increasing its sales to the NHS and corporates where business is now developing rapidly.

But it has been a bumpy road for the young businessman who, since launching the company has also won a string of awards for entrepreneurialism. From the beginning he has been met with a wall of silence from everyone across the optical industry. This stone-walling began when as a student who paid £150 for a pair of glasses, he tried to research the actual cost of making glasses. Each laboratory he called would not disclose any information on prices or supply. He eventually uncovered that the costs involved were just £5-£7 per pair. But that was just the start. Suppliers were equally reticent, and even when one was secured it withdrew its services only a matter of weeks after he launched Glasses Direct, forcing James to meet costs for a new website, brochure and legal fees. This could have driven the company into the ground, but James recognized that the industry opposition was based entirely on its price protectionism, and he was spurred to take them on.

On 1st July 2004, at the age of 21, and with no formal business training, James launched Glassesdirect.co.uk into an industry dominated by four major optical chains. His idea was simple. Instead of walking into a High Street optician and paying through the nose, simply enter your prescription on the internet, choose your frames, and Glasses Direct will supply you with your glasses, within a week, for just £15.

Since launching fierce anti-competitive practices from big high-street chains have continued. In 2006, he was the victim of election rigging as the CEO of Specsavers wrote to all his staff urging them to vote for a sympathetic candidate on to the industry regulator's council, the GOC. CEO Doug Perkins, himself on the companies committee of the GOC, said in the letter that 'Murray Wells' musty not be allowed a 'seat in Harley Street' (where the GOC is based). THe incident was widely reported, such as in the SMail on Sunday: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=406688&in_page_id=1770. Recently poloticians such as James Gray MP, Lawrence Roberts MP have given their support to Glasses Direct as they battle opposition in the industry. Gordon Brown MP honoured James Murray Wells (who is now an ambassador for UK enterprise)with an award in 2006, and has used his company as a model for UK entrepreneurialism in speeches since.

Nethertheless the company has continued to grow from success to success and now employs over 30 people. So far, Glasses Direct have saved the UK public over £10 million pounds on their eye care, with glasses starting from £15 complete. During 2005 James Murray Wells and Glasses Direct won: