Specsavers has opened a branch in Sainsbury’s on Nottingham Road, Mansfield, operating as a sister store to the neighbouring town practice.

The business will be run by two directors, Imogen Hoyle and Pat Hegarty, who have more than 41 years’ optical experience between them. Both are also familiar faces to Specsavers, as they head up the Mansfield town centre store.

“Pat and I are delighted to be launching the new store in Sainsbury’s and are very much looking forward to welcoming customers through the doors,” said Imogen. “We are looking forward to being able to offer our customers the best possible standards of eyecare and customer service but with a choice of two locations.”

As part of the opening, the store has already recruited four local staff to join the team, which will be headed up by manager Claire Fox.

The brand-new store has five optical consulting rooms, a contact lens area and a dedicated sound-proof room for audiology. It boasts all the latest high-tech optical equipment including an advanced eye scanning system which helps to detect several eye conditions, including glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy. The Nidek 3D Optical Coherence Tomography machine (OCT) is similar to an ultrasound but uses light instead of sound waves to create a picture from the reflections – in this case, the back of the eye.

OCT scans are additional to the normal eye test and can be requested when the appointment is booked or when the customer arrives in store. The cost of this scan (£10) is not covered by the NHS examination.