Otix Global, Inc., announced that its Australian division, HearingLife, has begun offering franchising opportunities to audiologists and audiometrists throughout Australia. HearingLife made the announcement at the annual Audiological Society of Australia (ASA) conference in Darling Harbour, Sydney. The ASA conference is equivalent to the American Academy of Audiology conference which is held in the U.S. each April.

Australia's HearingLife General Manager, Ashley Wilson, indicated that, "A traditional career path for an audiologist or audiometrist is generally a position in either a hospital, university or private clinic and most do not have the financial means to compete with the marketing dollars being invested by the larger hearing care retailers.

Hearing care professionals want to focus on caring for their patients and, as a result, many times do not have the time or expertise to establish and manage a business with all the usual inherent commercial, human resource and marketing issues. Our franchising model provides the franchise owner with the tools and resources to overcome these obstacles."

HearingLife is a leading private sector hearing care provider and is one of Australia's first mainstream hearing care retailers with 154 locations throughout Australia. Providing hearing health care for over 75 years, HearingLife is one of Australia's largest employers of hearing care professionals, providing best-in-class hearing health services including hearing testing, diagnosis, consultation, rehabilitative advice and prescription of appropriate hearing instruments.

"We have always believed that the hearing care professional should focus on the needs of the patient. Our franchise model provides the audiologist or audiometrist interested in owning and managing their own business with the supporting infrastructure necessary to compete in the marketplace. We believe this opportunity for the Australian hearing industry will provide an exciting new career path for many hearing care professionals," stated Otix Global chairman and CEO Sam Westover.