Lenskart to invest Rs 300 cr to become biggest eyewear player

Company claims it is selling largest number of spectacles and is also a leader in the segment

With an aim to becoming biggest player in the market by end of this year, online eyewear company Lenskart plans to invest Rs 300 crore over the next few years, its co-founder and CEO Peyush Bansal said.

The company has already invested a similar amount in the business and would continue to invest another Rs 300 crore till 2020. Lenkart is a manufacturing to retail business where it designs spectacles and manufactures lenses and sells through its e-commerce platform as well as offline stores which are based on the franchise model.

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The company said that it would break even by 2018 in all its various operations.

"We are also operationally break-even now which means that through our earnings we are able to fund our entire advertising which is a customer acquisition cost as well as any business expenses,” he said.

The company claims to be selling the largest number of spectacles and a leader in that segment though value wise it believes it would be the market leader by end of FY 2016. Its main competition is Titan Eyewear and major offline players in the segment.

The company makes more than 5,000 spectacles a day, and plans to raise it to 30,000 over the next two years. The company at present has around 1000 employees.

Bansal said that that company is now working on perfecting the home eye-checkup model which he believes would reap massive benefits in the long run. According to him, just like the home pathology testing model, this would also help them in gaining more customers and help them capture the tier-II and tier-III market.

“Diagnostic services changed after the convenience was brought to their doorstep we are bringing the same level of service which would change the way our sector functions. We are investing in the home model and taking our fleet to about 2000 people by 2021each doing at least six odd appointments and in each of them about two eye checkups. Currently we are crossing around a 1000 eye checkups every day. Demand for specs is high and more than 50 percent end up buying,” he said.

The company would soon come out with eye testing equipment which would work on an iPad. It also trains the people going for home eye checkups. At present Lenskart has four training centres and plans to increase it to 20 over the next two years.

“We are developing our own machine which would bring down the cost from $10,000 to as low as $1000.We would be launching those machines by May this year. We are investing heavily in this and have spent around Rs 20 crore in the home testing model. Over the next couple of years would be investing a north of Rs 60 crore in this,” Bansal added.

The company plans to reach around 500 odd cities by 2020 with its home eye testing model. “We are working on a customized device handheld device incorporating an iPad, with a UK based partner in which we have invested around $500,000,” he added.

According to Lenskart, around 10 percent of the business is coming from home eye testing model, which will eventually become 30 percent of the total business.

It would be moving to a new facility which would correspond with its expansion plans and would be around 100,000 square feet. The company has around 150 stores at present and plans to increase it to about a 1,000 stores.

Its current gross merchandise value is around Rs 300 crore. By 2021, the company plans to have a GMV of around Rs 2500 crore. Overall, the company has grown by 150% in the last one year.