About Lynne Fernandes Optometrists:
Lynne Fernandes Optometrists is a highly skilled, national award-winning Optometrists founded by Lynne and Gerard Fernandes. It is one of the most respected and trusted UK independent opticians, with highly qualified optometrists and industry-leading technology. Their innovative eye care and exemplary customer service is continuously improved by investment in equipment and products to provide personalised eye care and vision correction of the highest standard.
About the Knowledge Base:
The Knowledge Base team was made up of Mario Vafeas, Michelle Jackson, and Mary-Ann Sherratt. Professor of Marketing, Mario Vafeas teaches undergraduate and masters; he is involved in Knowledge Exchange Projects with SMEs, and research in the field of buyer-seller relationships and value co-creation. Michelle Jackson is a Senior Lecturer in the Business School, teaching at undergraduate and master’s level and is an experienced marketer and marketing manager. Mary-Ann Sherratt was the Workforce Development Portfolio lead, and Clinical Lead for Optometry and is now Head of Optometry and Consultant Optometrist at Bristol Eye Hospital.
About the KTP Associate:
David Todd worked as a Marketing and Business Change Manager with Lynne Fernandes Optometrists and UWE Bristol. He holds a Master’s degree in Strategy, Change and Leadership, as well as Business Administration. During his time on the KTP programme, David benefitted from extensive training, including a course at Ashorne Hill on Strategy and Innovation, and studied for a Diploma in Digital Marketing.
When asked if he would recommend the KTP Associate role, David shared:
“I would thoroughly recommend the programme to other graduates. You quickly gain knowledge and experience that can make a positive difference to the organisation you work with. You will always have problems, and I have found on several occasions talking to the right people makes a tremendous difference – people want to help. I feel that it is a springboard to a successful and interesting career. The programme gives you the tools and knowledge to progress and enables you to be an asset to your organisation. It is just a pity that more people do not know about it!“
About Innovate UK:
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, is the UK’s innovation agency. Their mission is to help companies to grow through their development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive and easy to navigate.
The Challenge the KTP Addressed:
The KTP project set out to address the follow aims:
Repositioning and relaunching the EyeSense subscription
- A key challenge for LFO was to fundamentally reposition and successfully relaunch its EyeSense subscription, clearly articulating its value proposition and differentiating it from traditional eye care offerings in a market dominated by large competitors.
Introducing performance standards and monitoring
- LFO faced the challenge of introducing consistent performance standards and robust performance monitoring across the business, in order to enhance patient experience while simultaneously improving eyecare outcomes.
Scaling the business and workforce
- Another significant challenge was increasing the number of LFO practices on the high street and expanding the workforce within a year of project completion, requiring scalable systems, leadership capacity, and sustainable growth processes.
For Lynne Fernandes Optometrists (LFO), continued growth, competitiveness, and resilience in the face of the ‘big three’ presented a clear challenge. Competing on price was neither viable nor desirable; to prosper, LFO had to differentiate itself by delivering demonstrable added value to customers.
This made the expansion of its EyeSense subscription service not just an opportunity, but an imperative. However, scaling this service posed a significant challenge: it demanded management capability, alongside robust clinical and business systems and processes that the company did not yet have in place.
The Solution:
To address Lynne Fernandes Optometrists strategic growth ambitions, they undertook a programme of organisational development, focusing on embedding new management practices, cultural change and leadership capability.
These changes were essential to enable the scalable relaunch and growth of its innovative EyeSense subscription service, which offers predictive and preventative eye care and differentiates the business from more reactive competitors. LFO had previously engaged marketing expertise where the understanding of the importance of care quality had been misunderstood. Similarly, it was difficult to find people with clinical expertise who understood business and marketing.
Facing challenges in aligning clinical expertise with business and marketing capability, LFO partnered with experts from Bristol Business School and Optometry to manage this growth period rigorously. This led to the embedment of these changes within LFO, ensuring long-term impact beyond the project’s lifetime.
The Impacts/Benefits of the KTP
The KTP delivered clear benefits for all partners. For Lynne Fernandes Optometrists, it resulted in a defined positioning statement for EyeSense, and a marketing plan for EyeSense, providing a strategic framework for future communications. The project also introduced standardised operating procedures, a new patient record coding system, and an electronic questionnaire, supporting improved efficiency and consistency. In 2025, the LFO group achieved 10% growth – EyeSense revenue had increased due to a fee uplift. Retail performance had been particularly strong, which was an impressive result given the broader UK retail landscape and the challenges which faced optical retail.
For UWE Bristol, the KTP project generated both academic and practitioner-focused outputs, including data collection for two research papers, one of which examines how tensions affect resource integration and outcomes in a private healthcare setting, and, jointly with the Associate, the development of a teaching case study based on brand positioning and branding hierarchy in an SME. These outputs contribute to academic dissemination and strengthen the potential for a future REF impact case study.
The KTP Associate gained a professional marketing qualification and completed the Strategy Innovation course, supported the advancement of their research and strategic skills through interviews, customer research via customer survey and operational development. This fed into the development of a positioning statement for EyeSense, which will guide all future marketing communications, and also led staff training and the implementation of new procedures, contributing to capability building within the business. They also developed standardised operating procedures – supporting staff development, new ways of working and ran staff training sessions.
What the partners have to say…
“The KTP has been a challenging but supported way of increasing and learning from cross discipline collaboration to the benefit of Lynne Fernandes Optometrists. In turn this will benefit patients in our geographical area and potentially influence national eyecare.“
Gerard Fernandes, Company Chair, Lynne Fernandes Optometrists
What the Knowledge Base partners have to say…
Academic Lead
“From an academic perspective the KTP was an opportunity to apply research-based knowledge to real-world commercial problems. The two-year project generated teaching material and provided the academic team with data for a new research paper. Working on a multi-disciplinary project, which had full commitment from the firm’s leadership team, was a very positive and rewarding experience.“
Mario Vafeas, Professor of Marketing, UWE Bristol.
Academic Supervisor
““Being involved with a KTP reminds me of the importance for business tutors, like myself, of the benefit of practical, live, real-time exposure to actual businesses. Gaining knowledge and experience is incredibly valuable for students, as it enriches their understanding and provides a practical context to theoretical learning. When students can relate their studies to real-world experiences, it not only enhances their learning but also prepares them for future professional challenges.”
Michelle Jackson, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, UWE Bristol
