Clearly a winner: Optometry clinic takes Business of the Year award

Times Photo Submitted. BUSINESS OF THE YEAR: Staff picture from Taber Vision Centre. Back Row: Crystal, Dr. Pack, and Jackie. Front Row: Devany, Agatha, Lauren, and Carmina.

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Taber Vision Centre has been selected as the Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year and will be honoured as such at the Chamber’s annual awards banquet on Jan. 17. If longevity and success are linked, the business has made its mark as one of the longest standing businesses in town, passing from the hands of its original owner to multi-generational family ownership.

 Owner and optometrist Jon Pack said, “Taber Vision Centre has been operating, we estimate, since 1949. I’m the third main optometrist here. A fellow named Dr. Stuart Boyle started it. He was here in town once upon a time as well. Then my father Gary came in and took over from Stu in 1986, and I took over in 2000.”

 Pack grew up in Taber, and had exposure to the business from the time he was teenager. He went to school in town and when it was time to get a post-secondary degree, he headed off to the University of Lethbridge and then Indiana University.

 Taber Vision Centre serves its clientele with medical eye care, eye exams, glasses, and contact lenses. Pack leads a staff of six and has three other associate doctors that make appearances at the clinic. In 2005, he started a second clinic in Lethbridge called Eye Appeal Vision Care, which he originally spent more time at but is now mostly run by a partner and other associates.

 Winning the COC award came as a surprise, given that Pack wasn’t even aware that he’d been nominated. “Somebody from the Chamber came into my office one day before we started seeing patients and announced that we had won,” he said.

 Asked if he would venture a guess as to why his business was awarded, he answered, “We provide a service which most people need. We try to do it in an honest way and provide good customer service. And the fact that we care about what we do and are motivated to help people in any way we can – to see better and to feel better.”

 “I think living in a small town, in order to be successful and be able to show your face in town, you have to be a certain way. You’re expected to hear your patients and clientele,” he finished. Congratulations to Dr. Pack and the team at the centre.