Hannaford Eyewear in Bowral, NSW has been crowned winner of the optometrist category in the 2022 Australian Small Business Champion Awards.
Balmain Vision (Balmain, NSW) and Premier Eyecare (Gladesville, NSW) were finalists in the category.
Established in 1999, the Australian Small Business Champion Awards is the most prestigious small business awards program in Australia and has expanded to 100 categories, giving more small businesses the opportunity to be recognised.
Principal optometrist Ms Thao Hannaford and husband, optical dispenser Grant Hannaford, established Hannaford Eyewear in 2004.
Thao dedicated the award to her team, who are all early career optometrists and optical dispensers and assistants.
“Our vision can only happen with the support of a great team and to have one who loves the practice and the patients as much as Grant and I do, is such a blessing.
“We work in a wonderful community and the support we receive from our patients is what keeps us around and saying thank you will never be enough,” she said.
Thao also thanked her husband and business partner, Grant, co-founder and director of the Academy of Advanced Ophthalmic Optics.
In June this year, Grant was named among four finalists in the Silmo IOA International Optician of the Year Award 2022. The winner will be revealed at this year’s Silmo show in Paris, taking place on 23-26 September.
“What a ride it’s been; 19 years of marriage and family, and 18 years of Hannaford Eyewear. We’ve brought our clinical practice model to the world and will shortly be heading to the UK to pilot what we have achieved here to their market and then the rest of the world in 2023 under the Academy of Advanced Ophthalmic Optics,” Thao said.
Hannaford Eyewear has previously won several local business awards, including the 2007, 2010, and 2011 Illawarra and South Coast, and 2017 and 2020 Southern Highlands Local Business Awards.
“We’ve been entering the Local Business Awards and Australian Small Business Champion Awards at local and national levels since 2007 and this was our first time taking home the national award,” she said.
“[Our team] deserve to be recognised nationally and I am absolutely delighted it finally happened.”
The awards are open to all small businesses in Australia within the retail, service and manufacturing industries. To be eligible to enter, the business must be a retail or service business with 40 employees or less, or a manufacturing business with 100 employees or less.
A panel of judges shortlist the entrants into finalists.
“Judges worked through over 3,500 entries to shortlist the finalists and choose the winners. That’s one huge task and we are thankful to them for choosing Hannaford Eyewear as a worthy recipient,” Thao said.
More reading
Myopia management for dispensers by Grant Hannaford – Part 1
Myopia lens fitting requirements by Grant Hannaford – Part 2
Two Australians named finalists for IOA International Optician of the Year Award 2022
