Why join Specsavers Audiology Australia..?

Changing lives for the better

With a recipe based on clinical excellence, open and transparent pricing, excellent products and eye-opening value, we have been making waves in the Australian audiology industry since 2017.

When we first launched, we had over 300 optical stores across the country, almost $1billion in annual sales, and more than six million Australians as customers. Since then, our numbers have increased – significantly, and we’re now known as the fastest growing audiology business in Australia.

All our audiology locations are based in our optometry stores because we know that eyes and ears go together – it just makes sense. You would be mistaken if you thought that Specsavers is just an optometry business, audiology has been a part of Specsavers since 2004, long before we even entered the Australian and New Zealand optometry markets in 2008.

Our goal remains simple… To change lives for the better. For our customers, by providing them with accessible, affordable and transparent hearing care, right across Australia. For our partners and employed clinicians, to prioritise the needs of their customers, always!

As we’re on our mission to offer audiology services in every single one of our stores, we’re also taking up the fight to transform the industry, demanding transparent pricing and customer-focused care for all Australians.

Are you ready for a positive change? It’s time for you to join us.

The AJVP model

What partnership with Specsavers is all about…

Specsavers audiology partnership is a support-laden franchise that operates across Australia, within Specsavers optical stores. Partnership with Specsavers Audiology is available to audiologists and audiometrists who are ready to take the next step in their career.

Audiology partners are business owners, however, unlike other business owners, they earn a guaranteed market-rate salary and superannuation package, plus dividends for the lifetime of their partnership agreement.

We provide all the support required in delivering world-class products via an agile supply chain, award-winning marketing, reliable IT systems, a wealth of training, shop fit-out plus ongoing support to help our partners grow their business by marketing to a collective customer base of more than six million individuals.

And all this happens whilst our partners are empowered to focus on what they do best – making clinical decisions that are in the best interests of their customers, without the pressure of sales targets or product-related KPIs.

Four Hats

The Employee ‘Hat’

Our audiology partners are audiologists and audiometrists plus business owners, earning a guaranteed market-rate salary and superannuation package for the lifetime of their partnership agreement paid through their business.

For our audiologist partners, this salary is $110,000 plus super, while audiometrist partners earn $100,000 plus super – reflecting market rates.

The Shareholder ‘Hat’

But this salary package is just one component of the true value of their partnership. Specsavers partners also own profit-earning shares in their business, rewarding their hard work and efforts as business owners. So, the potential value of a Specsavers Audiology joint venture partnership is divided between:

  • Annual salary + super package (paid fortnightly)
  • Annual profit (paid quarterly once the business is making profits)
  • The future value of the shares in the business (paid when the partner retires from the business)

The Director ‘Hat’

As Directors of their audiology business, our audiology partners are in charge of the day-to-day running of the business; that’s when being their own boss comes to life. Our audiology partners operate their businesses free from sales targets or product related KPIs, setting their own business plans into action to grow their business and take care of their customers.

The Franchisee ‘Hat’

And finally, our audiology partners are franchisees. As franchisees our partners have freedoms under their Director’s hat within a framework, which allows us to provide a consistent customer experience, no matter the Specsavers store. In simple terms, there’s no rebranding your Specsavers Audiology business to Eddie’s Ears or hiking up the retail price of your products and services.

Your In Store Support

Optics retail teams will help as the first point of contact for your customers.

They are naturally adept at:

  • Greeting and receiving customers to manage clinical appointments.
  • Providing basic ‘hearing aid triage’ to audiology customers, changing batteries, domes and tubing.
  • Demonstrating everyday Specsavers behaviours of openness and transparency, providing audiology customers with a clear price guide covering all audiology products and services.
  • Referring any product and price-related questions to the audiology partner or audiology professional for detailed answers.
  • Facilitating a no-cost hearing screener service to all optical customers aged 50 and over, as part of the standard pre-test for optical appointments; and where the screener indicates a potential hearing loss, the customer is offered a free 15-minute check with the audiology professional.

Your Back Office Support

Becoming an audiology partner with Specsavers is simple. We take care of all the back-office work, while you focus on what you love – focusing on the hearing needs of your customers.

We have a collective support team of over 500 talented people who support our partners with an array of services, from recruitment, local area marketing and store design, retail consulting, training and development, back-office accounting – the list goes on.

We manage each business’s accounts payable and quarterly BAS; produce easy to read monthly P&L accounts and end of year financial statements which detail how each individual business is tracking. We manage the payment of all taxes and paydown of any business loans; and we also make a regular distribution of profits to all partners – while making sure there is a sensible buffer of cash left in the business to cover next month’s expenditure.

In short, we provide a wide range of support services, in exchange for a service fee. Our support structure works because it’s designed to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to driving each business and the partnership as a whole – forward.

The breakdown of support service fees includes:

  • Management fee; 8% of gross monthly revenue
  • IT & Software Support Fee: 1.5% of gross monthly revenue
  • Accounting Fee: 1.5% of gross monthly revenue
  • Training Fee: 1% of gross monthly revenue

Your Marketing Support

  • Specsavers audiology partners can leverage the existing optical database in their location, with TV Ads and consumer marketing outlining the growing audiology element of the Specsavers business, the focus on customer care, exceptional clinical service and extraordinary value.
  • With new Specsavers audiology businesses opening every month in existing Specsavers optical premises, customer numbers grow and the take up from clients is already hinting at the multi-million-dollar potential of Specsavers’ six-million strong client database and the scale of the market opportunity.
  • Each business contributes 7% of sales revenue to the Specsavers Audiology marketing fund.

To find out if partnership is the right fit for you, contact our Recruitment team at dylan.yarborough@specsavers.com or call Dylan Yarborough, Audiology Partner Recruitment Manager – Australia & New Zealand, for a confidential WhatsApp chat on +44 1566 771 888.