Optical entrepreneur Royston Bayfield has won a national business award after dramatically increasing company turnover in one of the worst recessions on record. Royston, managing director of Bayfields Opticians, saw off 300 other companies to take the ActionCoach prize at Reading’s Wokefield Park Hotel.
The 31-year-old businessman and optometrist has practices on the High Street in Yeadon, as well as in Headingley and on Leeds University’s campus, He bought his first practices in 2004 and the one in Yeadon – formerly Kathryn Stott’s – in August 2009. He now has 23 staff dealing with 21,000 patients.
He has increased the patient base in each outlet by 30 per cent in the first year, and has increased the average number of patients across the group by ten per cent year-on-year since his first purchase in 2004. Mr Bayfield, who described himself as an “ambassador” for the hard work of his team, said: “ActionCoach was started by Australian millionaire, Brad Sugars, and is one of the most respected business brands in the world so, to take the UK title, is absolutely fantastic.”
Entrants were judged by a panel of independent judges who assessed growth, revenues, profits and the entrant’s impact on both its sector and local community.
“There’s no doubt that our Glasses to Africa initiative impressed the judges after they learned how we’d sent hundreds of pounds worth of new spectacles to the third world as part of a major promotion,” added Mr Bayfield, who is also known in Yeadon as a local theatre director.
The awards are designed to honour the ‘best of the best’ in small and medium-sized businesses from around the world. “I remain on the acquisition trail and our aim is to have six practices by the end of this year and 20 by the end of 2020,” he said.
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