An open letter from Julia Hewagama

The last 18 months have been challenging, but we’re a resilient bunch here in Australia and New Zealand. 

In our business model, we talk about partnership, but the true meaning of partnership has never been more evident than the last 18 months – as we have worked hand in hand with our partners, to ride this wave and to come out stronger. And I have every confidence that if you were to ask any of our partners if they felt and continued to feel supported, that they would give you a resounding yes.  

We have all missed opportunities to come together at our quarterly communications meetings and dinners, and we’ve missed being in a room together – sharing our progress and getting our partners input on our direction. But we’ve learned to adapt, and we have all become experts at webinars and teams/zoom meetings. In fact, now more than ever, we’re able to catch up and work with our partners more frequently and on a larger scale. 

Back when the first lockdowns were announced, I believe our partners felt that they were in safe hands. Our colleagues overseas had already started planning for the eventuality of lockdowns in late January 2020 after watching the situation in China – so we had a really strong business continuity plan that simply kicked into place.  

As a business, it’s our responsibility to plan for every situation, to ensure that our partners and our customers receive ongoing support and guidance – and that’s exactly what we did. Our support team were and still are there to filter out the noise, and to let our partners know what’s required to safely open doors to take care of customers.  

It’s remarkable to think that over the last 18 months, we have not just survived – but we have thrived. That feeling of being part of something – of connection with our vision and our ambition is so incredibly strong. Our ability to continue with our growth plans and rollout of Audiology stores across Australia and New Zealand, is something we’re all proud of. Yet credit must go to the extraordinary audiology professionals who share our vision and continue to deliver great value without compromise, to more communities.  

And we are not done yet. There is so much that Specsavers Audiology has to offer both customers and clinicians. I would just say to all those clinicians out there, that are thinking about or wishing to make a change but are concerned about the timing – trust that we are here to support you, and together we can achieve great things – pandemic or not.