The Optilabs story

 

From a Croydon Apprentice to over 60 Years in Optics

How Tony Kerr went from learning a traditional craft in a tiny Croydon factory to building one of Britain’s leading prescription sports eyewear businesses — while also serving 25 years as a magistrate.

When Tony Kerr walked into C. A. Head’s optical factory in Tunstall Road, Croydon, in 1956, he was just 17 years old.

He could hardly have imagined that he was beginning a working life in optics that would still be continuing nearly 70 years later.

The factory was a very different place from a modern optical laboratory. There were no computers, no CNC machinery and no digital lens production. Virtually everything was done by hand. Lenses were surfaced and glazed by skilled craftsmen, while frames were individually made and finished.

Tony’s teacher was the imposing Charles Head, simply know as “Tiny” Head — a rather ironic nickname for a man who stood about 6ft 2in and was a very large man.

Tiny had started his own working life in the same factory, eventually taking it over. He was tough but fair and, as Tony recalls, there was virtually no job in the factory that he could not do himself.

“He taught me an enormous amount but he had a wicked sense of humour,” says Tony.

On Tony’s first day he sent his young apprentice upstairs on an errand. Keen to impress, Tony ran up the stairs, failed to notice a low beam and hit it hard enough to see stars. As he recovered, he heard Tiny’s voice behind him: “If you’ve damaged that wood, boy, you’ll pay for it.”

Among the many skills Tony learned was the making of genuine tortoiseshell frames from the Hawksbill turtle. Tony learned to transform the original shell plates into beautifully finished frames and insert joints which were handmade from 18-carat gold.

It was a craft that demanded enormous skill and patience — and one that has long since disappeared because Hawksbill turtles are now protected – and rightly so.

 

Starting with £100

When C. A. Head closed in the early 1960s, Tony was devastated. He had lost his job, but he had also lost the man who had become his mentor and, eventually, one of his best friends.

Tony decided that if he could not find another job, he would create one. With £100 borrowed from his father and one very old grinding machine, he founded Sterling Optical Co. Ltd. in 1963.

His first premises were a rented workshop, costing just £500 a year. The early years were an incredibly hard slog. Tony gradually built up a business supplying opticians throughout the South of England. At its peak, Sterling was producing more than 1,000 pairs of frames, lenses and other optical work every week.

During the the 1980s, the optical industry changed dramatically. When restrictions on supplying the public were eased under Margaret Thatcher’s government, Tony decided to sell directly to customers. And that decision would change the direction of his business entirely.

 

The chance meeting that changed everything

One of the most important moments came almost by accident. Tony recalls a chance meeting in a W.H. Smith with a man whose hobby was angling. The man suggested that fishermen had a particular problem: they wanted the benefits of polarised glasses but also needed prescription lenses.

So, Tony decided to try an experiment. He placed a single advertisement in Angling Times. The advert appeared over the weekend and at 8.15am on Monday morning, the telephone rang with the first order …“And the orders have never stopped!” Tony says.

The idea eventually developed into Optilabs, established in 1994, which has grown into a leading UK specialist in prescription sports eyewear.

Today, Optilabs supply prescription eyewear to cyclists, golfers, shooters, anglers, runners and many other sports enthusiasts across the UK. They also provide comprehensive eye examinations and everyday glasses to customers across the Croydon and South London area from their showroom in Stafford Road, Fiveways.

Tony has also had some rather distinguished customers along the way. On one memorable occasion, the private secretary of Queen Elizabeth II telephoned to order prescription shooting glasses for the Duke of Edinburgh. Betty Boothroyd, the former Speaker of the House of Commons, was also a regular visitor.

 

A second career in the law

There was another important part of Tony’s life running alongside optics. In 1984 he was appointed a magistrate and he went on to serve for 25 years – eventually becoming Chairman of Sutton Magistrates’ Court.

For Tony, the magistracy was about more than simply sitting in court. He had a strong commitment to the local community and a deep respect for the history of the magistracy and the principle of being judged by one’s peers.

His proudest moment came when the Government proposed closing Sutton Magistrates’ Court. Tony fought for three long years to prevent it. When the news finally came that, against the odds, the court had been saved, the emotion overwhelmed him.

He remembers being unable to speak as tears streamed down his face. He then had the privilege of telling more than 100 magistrates and nearly 50 court staff that their court had been saved. It remains, he says, “probably the proudest moment of my life — and one that had nothing to do with optics”.

 

Still working at 87

Tony is now 87, but retirement has not been his style. On a daily basis, he remains active in the business he began building more than six decades ago.

From a 17-year-old apprentice working in a Dickensian Croydon factory, learning a craft entirely by hand, to the owner of a successful modern optical business, his career has spanned a remarkable period of change.

The machinery may have changed. The way glasses are made may have changed. The business itself has changed enormously. But the pride in doing things properly remains.

Looking back, Tony is remarkably modest about his achievements.

Perhaps the simplest way he puts it is the way his mother taught him:

“To always try your best.”