Bausch & Lomb to increase footprint in India

Contact lens maker Bausch & Lomb plans to increase its footprint in India, besides launching its global products simultaneously in the country.

"In the next three years, our objective is to increase our distribution by making our products available to another 1,500 outlets in India," Bausch & Lomb India Managing Director Harish Natarajan told PTI.

The company's products are currently available in about 5,500 outlets and it plans to take it up to 7,000 outlets. It is also undertaking training programmes for people associated with its business and create awareness through below the line activities in the next three years.

Bausch & Lomb is also into eye surgical equipment and these are available in almost 450 hospitals in India, he said.

Natarajan said the main aim of the company is to expand the Indian contact lens market to Rs 500 crore from its existing Rs 120 crore.

"Being a market leader, we want to see the Indian contact lens market grow and expand to around Rs 500 in the next three years. So, most of our investment would go in educating consumers, training manpower and creating interest by way of launching more products," he said.

Besides enhancing the network, the company aims to launch its latest globally available products simultaneously in India.

"There has been a time lag in launching the global products in the country. Most of the time it gets delayed by over three to fours-months period. We want to bridge this gap and launch every product simultaneously," he said.

While 50 per cent of its consumers in India use the traditional rigid lenses, Natarajan said there has been a "huge move to the monthly lenses" in the last few years.