Avant Garde Optical, Newark, awarded prestigious title at Love Eyewear Awards
An optician in Newark is celebrating after its products were awarded a prestigious national title at a London ceremony, writes Will Hugall.
Avant Garde Optical, based on Chain Lane in Newark, was present at the ExCeL Arena in London to pick up the title of Kid’s eyewear of the year from the Love Eyewear Awards.
The frames that won the award were the NANO VISTA Crew Clip + Blue Block + Polarized, a pair produced by the Spanish company NANO VISTA, whom Avant Garde are the exclusive distributors for in the UK.
Paul Cotter, managing director of Avant Garde and London Eye Bespoke Eyewear, said: “It was brilliant. Obviously, it’s the first one we’ve been able to do since covid so [it was] very busy and there were a lot of entrants as well, as there hadn’t been an awards ceremony for over two years.
“To win the award was brilliant, because on the Sunday and the Monday, we were just run off our feet.”
The Love Eyewear Awards formed part of the wider three-day 100% Optical show at the ExCeL, which also provided companies with the chance to network and secure business.
It is the largest event of its type for the optical industry in the UK, and gives opportunities to both national and local companies to showcase their products.
“It was busy, really busy. So, it was nice to get back to it really,” Paul said.
“We saw quite a few familiar faces and a lot of new people there. We opened up quite a few new accounts as well so that was great.”
Despite challenges from Brexit in terms of importing glasses from Spain, as well as managing both Avant Garde and London Eye Bespoke Eyewear in the town, it’s been a rewarding time for Paul with the businesses.
After more than 25 years in the optometry industry, Paul said: “We’ve been nominated before, but never won, so it’s our first time winning.
“Some of my customers said ‘if this award goes right, you’ll win it’. And I said, ‘yeah, but look who I’m up against, some of these big boys’.
“And we won, so I was delighted and a bit shocked when our name came out.”
Having lived in Newark for 27 years and owned the London Eye and Avant Garde stores since 2013 and 2015 respectively, it was something of a summation of plenty of hard work for Paul.
He said: “I’d just like to say a big thank you to the team at London Eye and Avant Garde for all the hard work in getting to this result, because they’ve both pulled together to do it.
“We’ve taken it as an award between both companies really, because nobody just works within the one part of the business, everybody moves between the two.”