A 6/6 Vision For Growth

Eyewear retailer Lenskart wants to grab 50% of the market and become the Maruti Suzuki of the Indian eyewear industry in the next 10 years.

- Rozelle Laha

PEYUSH BANSAL REACHES into his shirt pocket and brings out a pair of glasses rimmed by a brown, rectangular frame. The chief executive of eyewear retailer Lenskart twists the temples of the frame and tries to break them—all with a poker face. He then breaks into a smile, as if he’s a magician who’s just performed a magic trick. And magic it is. Despite the abuse, the 12gm Airflex range frame made of a lightweight material called Ultem retains its shape.

Sitting inside the glittering office tower of International Finance Corporation (IFC), one of its investors, in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex, Bansal retains the self-assurance he showed during the performance of the ‘magic trick’ when he says: “We want to be the Maruti [Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest automobile manufacturer] of eyewear in India.” The Faridabad-headquartered firm is looking to capture 50% of the Indian eyewear market in the next 10 years. Bansal estimates 1.2 million glasses are sold in the country every day.

There are enough grounds for his optimism. The eyewear market in India is highly unorganised and flooded with unbranded products. Retail consultancy firm Wazir Advisors says prescription-based eyewear makes up 78-80% of total sales, followed by sunglasses and contact lenses. Market research firm Euromonitor International forecasts in a report released in July 2018 that sales of eyewear in India will increase to 39,702.77 crore in 2023 from 28,431.74 crore in 2018. An April 2018 report by U.K.based think tank Overseas Development Institute found that India has 477 million people in need of vision correction. “Only 25% wear them [spectacles],” says Bansal. Lenskart clocks about 30,000 spectacles a day and is looking to increase its daily sales to 100,000 in around 10 years. Even then, he says, Lenskart will only be addressing just 30% of the market.