From Bristol to British Columbia

The next chapter in Bradley’s story

Last year, we shared Bradley Long’s inspiring journey from apprentice to dispensing optician general manager. He’s back to tell us about how- just a year later- his career in Bristol reached new heights over in Canada.

“It’s hard to believe that I was the general manager and dispensing optician at Specsavers Stroud last time we spoke,” he recalls. “Things have moved so quickly!”.

In July 2023, Bradley completed the Specsavers Pathway, our exclusive training and development programme that supports colleagues in becoming successful business owners through our joint venture partnership model.

The Pathway programme was amazing. It made me think bigger, pushed me to improve, and gave me experience in new areas of the business.

There were opportunities in the UK for me to become a retail partner, but I ended up exploring things further away. I’d heard about the opportunities in Canada internally, so I connected with Mike Rowe and the Specsavers Canada team to find out more…

…and here I am now in beautiful British Columbia, Canada! My new store is opening next week, and I can’t believe that this is real!

Without sounding like a broken record, if you’d have asked the nervous 16-year-old apprentice where he would be in 11 years’ time, I wouldn’t be telling you I’d be running my own Specsavers store in Canada because I didn’t think it was possible. But I am, and it is.”