Hassan's Optics

		Category Location Telephone	: Optics :  :
		More than six decades ago a newly-qualified optician from Tehran in Iran set foot for the first time in Kuwait where he initiated, almost single-handedly, his host country's optical industry. Today Hassan's Optician Company remains at the forefront of that industry's progress.   The economic development of Kuwait was just beginning in 1951 when Hassan Saadat opened one of the country's first optical shop in Al-Jadeed Street, Sharq, He sold some of the first pairs of glasses ever sold in Kuwait – to the late Sheikh Lssa, Amir of Bahrain, and the late Sheikh Abdullah Mubarak Al-Sabah.   Due to a lack of equipment in the early days Hassan Saadat had to fabricate glasses by hand using primitive tools. Since his shop did not have electricity he worked in his apartment. A paucity of suitable materials led him to experiment and he discovered that the sand on the beach near Shuwaikh, opposite Al-Salem Palace, provided an excellent base for grinding prescription lenses.   He also sent frames and lenses to Tehran for fitting, and brought spare in from there, through friends in the airline. When he would notice a plane arriving from Tehran he used to cycle to the airport in Bneid Al-Gar to Pick up his goods. To secure his supply route, he always escorted the airline captains by taxi to Jashanmals and made certain they were comfortable on their stop-overs.   Hassan's business was already expanding due to his policy of quality in product and service. Though he kept his first shop for seven years. During which he began training assistants in the optician's art, by 1958 he had three shops, in Sharq, Dasman and Fahd  Over the following three decades he opened further shops and by August 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, Hassan's Optician Company was a well-established business with twelve shops strategically located throughout the country.