Praills Opticians, the only independent optical clinic in the area, has invested £50,000 in a range of new high-tech instruments, as it tools up to compete with the big-name brands.

The investment is a 'big gamble' for the small-scale business, which has been trading since 1921, making it the oldest optician in Fareham.

But despite pressure from giant nationwide competitors, which have bought up a number of small clinics across the area, practice manager
Robert Gough said that the move allowed Praills to stay fighting fit, and keep up with it deep-pocketed franchise rivals.

Mr Gough said: 'The equipment we have purchased is the most up-to-date and sophisticated that money can buy.

'All this helps us make the most informed diagnosis possible, and enables more personalised treatment for clients.

'We do a lot of NHS work, but also a lot of private clients, so we have
to compete with other clinics for those kind of customers, like providing work testing for computer users, which isn't covered by the NHS.'

The cash injection is the firm's latest move to sharpen its competitive edge.

Praills Opticians won a DVLA approval to provide eye-scanning to road users at the beginning of the year, and before that had replaced the old black-and-white wall letter charts with a computerised system, allowing staff to brighten up the process with pictures and images.

Mr Gough said that although his small competitors are eaten up by the big fish such as Specsavers and Vision Express, he was determined to stay his own boss, even through difficult economic times.

'We don't have vast marketing budgets like the multiples, so must of
our customers come by word of mouth,' he said.

'This investment does give us a competitive edge, because most of the others don't have this kind of technology.'

The new equipment
A Zeiss Relaxed Vision Terminal: takes precise optical measurements, accurate to 100th of a millimetre, and takes the place of 'tape measures held to people's heads'.
Cost: £7,000
Retinal camera: a device to scan and capture a detailed image of the back of the eye.
Cost: £20,000
DVLA Visual Field Screener: this piece of equipment provides a binocular test for the DVLA to test your field of vision. Cost: £7,000
Weco Glazing machine: a glass-making device, allowing Praills to finish its own pairs of glasses in-house. Cost: £16,000