70+ combined years building optical practices.
Thirty years engineering the rooms. Forty years running the practice.
Optical Retail Consultants pairs the people who engineer eyecare retail environments with the people who have owned, scaled and sold eyecare practices.
Independents shouldn't have to choose between clinical integrity and retail performance.
Consolidators solved retail optical by standardising it. Independents can't copy that, and shouldn't want to.
What makes this work is the pairing: one side has engineered the environment in tens of thousands of practices, the other has owned the P&L and taken a practice group through to acquisition. Neither is enough alone.
Who you actually work with.
Mani Vaghedi
Optical retail strategist · practice designer
Mani has spent more than thirty years planning, designing and engineering the physical environments eyecare practices sell from — and teaching ECPs across the United States and Canada how to use them. He began in the early 1990s building Optic-Video, one of the first video imaging systems that let opticians educate patients and present premium eyewear on the floor, years before digital display became standard.
After a decade at Intel advising Fortune 500 companies on technology integration and operational efficiency, he founded CNS in 2003 to close a gap he had watched persist: independent practices had no purpose-built display environments, no spatial strategy, and no practical retail framework for capturing optical revenue. CNS grew into North America's leading provider of eyecare display systems and practice furniture, with work in more than 40,000 practices worldwide.
Essilor acquired a majority stake in 2013 and Mani joined to lead its retail infrastructure and design initiatives internationally. When the 2018 EssilorLuxottica merger shifted corporate priorities, he bought his shares back — returning CNS to full independence so that independent practitioners kept a partner whose interests stayed aligned with theirs.
- 30+ years
- Planning, designing and educating across North America
- 40,000+
- Practices reached through CNS environments worldwide
- 2003
- Founded CNS; returned it to independence in 2018
- 4 degrees
- Chemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, information systems management
Dr. David H. Hettler, OD
Diplomate, American Board of Optometry
Dr. Hettler brings four decades of clinical practice and the full arc of practice ownership — startup, expansion, and exit. He graduated with honors from The Ohio State University College of Optometry in 1984 and went on to become a Diplomate of the American Board of Optometry, building a reputation across comprehensive exams, contact lens fitting and ocular disease management.
He co-founded and scaled a multi-location optometry and retail optical group across Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C. metro — Alexandria, Fredericksburg, Manassas and Woodbridge — combining diagnostic technology, disciplined workflow and a customer-first retail environment. The group's performance made it a target for consolidation, and Dr. Hettler negotiated and completed its sale to EyeCare Partners, operating regionally as Clarkson Eyecare, then served as Regional Medical Director through the integration.
He was named Virginia Optometrist of the Year and served as President of the Virginia Board of Optometry and of his local optometric society. On engagements he leads the clinical side of the diagnosis: patient flow, exam-lane capacity, capture rate, staff structure, and — for owners thinking about an exit — what a buyer will actually underwrite.
- 40+ years
- Clinical practice and practice ownership
- 4 locations
- Multi-site group built and scaled in Northern Virginia
- Full exit
- Sale to EyeCare Partners; Regional Medical Director post-close
- Past President
- Virginia Board of Optometry · Virginia Optometrist of the Year
What makes this different from a rep with a floor plan.
Both sides of the counter
One partner has engineered the selling environment in tens of thousands of practices. The other has owned the P&L and exited a multi-site group. Most advisors have one or the other.
Retail-first, clinically fluent
We treat the dispensary as specialty retail, because that is what it is — but the recommendations are made by people who understand exam-lane throughput and disease management, not just square footage.
We install
Plans that stop at recommendation don't get implemented. We stay through the reset, the training and the first quarter of measurement.