Lawrence & Mayo to expand retail network

Mumbai-based ophthalmic, optics and instrumentation company, Lawrence & Mayo Opticals (L&M), is planning to expand its dispensing network across the country.

The company would open 20 stores over the next two to three years, each entailing an investment of around Rs 75 lakh.

"Our focus this year would be on further consolidating our presence by opening four to five more stores in the existing locations, before moving on to tier-II cities like Salem, Kozhikode, Bhubaneswar, Surat and Madurai from next year in a phased manner," Amitava Mendonca, marketing director of L&M, told mediapersons here.

The 130-year-old company with 43 stores in 17 cities including six in Hyderabad, clocked revenues of Rs 104 crore during the last financial year, with 70 per cent of it coming from the opticals business.

"The optical market in the country is highly fragmented with the unorganised sector accounting for nearly 85 per cent. The market, however, is growing at 20 per cent every year, and we expect our revenues to increase 25 per cent year-on-year in the next two-three years," he added.

The Indian optical market, both organised and unorganised, is currently pegged at around Rs 2,000 crore. L&M commands around 15 per cent market share in the organised sector, according to him.

As part of its 130 years celebration, L&M is planning to conduct extensive mobile eye-care tests for institutions, corporates, schools and colleges, which will be followed by a series of seminars.

It also plans to organise various customer contact programmes to educate them about the permanent damage a fake product can do to the eyes if not taken care at the initial stages.