Cheap Chinese chairs spurred EL move

ON YOUR next visit to the optometrist, consider the ophthalmic testing chair you are sitting on – it may just have come from the Gonubie-based Optigen.

The company has been assembling and supplying optometrist equipment for the local market and has supplied clients as far afield as Australia since 1990.

Entrepreneur Trevor Giese says he decided to relocate his business to East London from Johannesburg because of high standards delivered by local suppliers, from which he sources his components.

Giese said the close proximity to suppliers made East London an attractive venue.

“I moved after being in Johannesburg for 10 years. I battled to source the specialist materials, which are now manufactured by Gravett Engineering to our specifications at competitive prices.

“At high prices we battled to be competitive, especially when the Chinese started coming in.”

Giese said his competitors continuously come up with elaborate functions for clients – while Optigen has kept things simple.

“We have continually improved our products; each time we build one we come up with a new thing to go one up. But we make sure that the product remains user-friendly and easy to fix.

“We focus on market reliability,” he continued, “high enough quality not to require repairs for 20 to 30 years.”

Giese said the company has held its own in the international arena, competing with Italian, German and Chinese companies for a select group of clients in Africa and beyond its borders.

He says Optigen is the only company to assemble such equipment in Africa, following a decision to assemble locally for the export and local market in the face of a depreciating rand about 10 years ago.

Giese displayed entrepreneurial flair when, at the age of 20 in 1987, he spotted an opportunity to import frames while at an optometrist’s offices.

“I picked up a frame which was priced at R400 in those days and thought to myself: Somebody makes a lot of money,” said Giese.

He started importing frames while he was studying civil engineering. Then he moved on to optometrist’s equipment.

However, with the volatility of the rand making imports expensive, the company moved into manufacturing the ophthalmic and dentist chairs.

Now Giese has his sights set on broadening his client base in the export market to Arab countries and South America.