Robertson Optical Laboratories Marks 50th Anniversary
Vision Monday
Published April 2008
Independent wholesaler Robertson Optical marks its 50th anniversary this month. The company’s original location in downtown Atlanta was opened April 14, 1958 by Jack Robertson, an optical lab veteran who started in the business in 1920. Robertson Optical’s 11 employees serviced 22 prescriptions that first day and 149 the first week.
Through the years, Robertson Optical has owned labs in Atlanta, Ga.; Greenville, S.C.; Columbia, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Albany, Ga.; Orlando, Fla. and Chattanooga, Tenn. In total, the company has occupied at least 15 buildings. Robertson Optical has filled millions of lens prescriptions, sold a multitude of eyeglass frames, sold contact lenses, developed the first one-step fining pad for grinding plastic lenses and started a separate company that designed and sold jumbo lens trays and Frame-o-Flex frame drawer dividers.
Today, Robertson is headquartered in Loganville, Ga. and operates branches in Columbia and Greenville, S.C. It employs 120 people, fills more than 7,000 prescriptions a week and serves customers throughout the southeastern and central states.
“When Jack Robertson started in the optical trade in the 1920s, little did he know the number of lives he would impact in the industry for future generations,” said Calvin Robertson, Jr., secretary of Robertson Optical of Atlanta (Loganville) and president of Robertson Optical of Columbia and Greenville, SC.