Business Spotlight: Vision for the Future

Heffington Optical Co. finally made its move.

After 20 years looking for just the right spot, the family of eyeglass makers and sellers opened Heffington’s House of Vision in March. Founder Bob Heffington and his sons Gary and Mark bought a former CoxHealth surgery center at the corner of Fremont Avenue and Montclair Street, adding to its operations on the north side.

They had operated the Spec Shop in the Galleria Shopping Center on Battlefield Road since they purchased the business in the early 1980s. But on two floors, the 2,300-square-foot tight quarters proved challenging for access among a growing number of elderly or disabled patients. With doctors’ offices on the second floor and no potential for an elevator, the Americans with Disabilities Act movement in the 1990s got the Heffingtons’ wheels turning.

“Any accessibility issues we had, we either directed clients to our store on Chestnut or we weren’t able to satisfy them,” Gary says, noting the Galleria landlord grandfathered in the store. “We had properties under contract, and they didn’t work out. Timing wasn’t right. We just had to be patient.”

Turns out, the long search took them just around the corner. Real estate brokerage R.B. Murray Co. led them to a 10,000-square-foot medical building, at 1350 E. Woodhurst Drive, less than half-a-mile away. The purchase last year was financed by a $1.36 million loan through OakStar Bank, according to a deed of trust filed with the Greene County recorder.

The family spent nine months on renovations, led by Grindstone Construction for an undisclosed amount, and converted the Spec Shop to House of Vision with a wide-open showroom and six exam rooms, including one with handicap accessibility. Still, a few of the eye exam chairs haven’t been updated, giving a visible nod to the company’s deep history in the Ozarks.

The visual emphasis here is on a can’t-miss sports zone – complete with a life-size Shaquille O’Neal poster and a couple stadium seats for fans of the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals – to showcase sun and eye protection for the athletic types.

“We like to support our baseball teams around here,” Mark says.

On the other wall are hand-built display cases with designer frames from Dolce & Gabbana, Ray Ban and Polo. The options seem endless – and that’s where the Heffingtons say one of the seven staff optometrists come in to guide the patient’s choice. Mark says certain prescriptions are more effective with certain frames.

“Comfort is king. But the main function is to see well,” he says.

Springfield businesswoman Loa Freeman has purchased multiple eyeglasses over her 15 years as a patient with the Heffingtons.
 
“I’m one of those people who have one pair next to my bed, one in my car – so I’ve got about four pairs,” says Freeman, who owns personal coaching business Success Naturally.

She acknowledges fashion is a factor, and she’s had Heffington’s Optical insert prescription lenses into her favorite sunglass frames.

“It’s a fashion statement, an accessory today,” she says. “I love that.”

These days, the patriarch of the Heffingtons’ business is involved only with a financial interest.

“The boys run the business,” Bob says, standing in the new south-side showroom.

He’s invested his time. Bob founded the company in 1975 as a manufacturer of lenses, after a career as regional president for American Optical Co. The move was prompted by AO’s exit of the lens manufacturing and wholesale segment. “That left a void in southwest Missouri for Heffington Optical to fill for those wholesale accounts,” Gary says.

Now, the business has shifted more to the retail side, but the lens laboratory still serves over 60 accounts, mostly regional eyeglass retailers.

The family keeps the wholesale side under wraps, calling it a white-glove environment in a separate 6,000-square-foot building at 640 W. Chestnut St. and noting their retail clients don’t publicize they’re buying lenses from another eyeglass retailer.

Inside the lab, there are typically two shifts, starting at 6 a.m. An undisclosed number of workers begin new lens production with thick glass blanks, then they use a cutting machine to grind and polish for the right fit.

Orders in town are turned around typically on the same day, and regional client jobs are sent overnight, says Gary, declining to disclose production volumes.

Freeman visited the new House of Vision last week with a scratched lens in hand.

“I’m a little hard on my glasses,” she says.

She’s told the repair is a two-day job.

The retail side has grown more than wholesale for the Heffingtons.

Next to the eyeglass factory on the north side, the company has another 6,000-square-foot building for a retail showroom and doctor’s offices.

They’ve observed a shift in the last 10 years to more third-party payers and less self-pay clients. Vision insurance has recorded 4 percent annual growth the last five years to become a $27 billion industry, according to market research by IBISWorld.

Employer-covered eyewear, especially in safety glasses, is common for Heffington’s through contract orders by manufacturing companies, such as Paul Mueller Co., Springfield ReManufacturing Corp. and Stainless Fabrication Inc.

Eye exam fees are set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mark says, and self-pay rates are scaled between $20 and $200. The standard fee is about $70. He says most exams last 45 minutes – and the Heffingtons place an emphasis on their doctors being present for all of that time.

“Our industry begins and ends with the eye exam,” Gary says.