Essilor aims to woo Indians to plastic lens

Essilor, a French company in the space of ophthalmic optical products, has big plans for the Indian market. The company, which has been functioning in the country since 1998 plans to make India a plastic lens country, a product which Essilor claims to have invented and one in which it excels.

For this purpose, they plan to establish themselves not only as the optician's right hand in India but also build themselves as a recognisable brand for the consumer.

"We plan to become a one stop solution for the optician. This includes everything from sourcing of lens to processing of the same - everything except direct interaction with the customer. For this purpose, we will in the next one year's time acquire as many lens processing labs around the country as possible," said B Jayanth, managing director of Essilor SRF Optics India.

Plastic lenses are less dense and more scratch and break resistant than glasses. As of now, plastic lenses in the low-end remains up to three times costlier than their glass counterparts.

But as one progresses to higher-end lenses, which demand more functionality, the price differential levels out to an extent where plastic lenses equal glass in price or even turn out to be cheaper.

In line with the strategy, the company recently closed the acquisition of Mumbai-based processing lab, Vijay Vision, along with its distribution arm, Beauty Glass.

The company has five labs and plans to expand this to around 40 labs in the next five years, largely by picking up existing labs in the highly fragmented market. Jayanth refused to give an investment figure for the acquisitions. "We will put in whatever is needed," he said.

The company also plans to do extensive training covering aspects of their product as well as the dispensation process to retailers in order to get end consumers more interested in the 'intermediary product' of spectacle lenses. What could turn out to be of more consequence in the long run, is the company's plan to make plastic lens a branded commodity and of one that the consumer is well aware of.

"Our problem is catching the consumer in the 24 hours that it takes from his receiving the prescription for glasses to the time he gets the same from the optician. We want to get him interested in lenses enough to make him ask for a specific brand when he steps into the opticians. That is why we have started on a branding exercise in Chennai for our Verilux range of lenses. We plan to do the pilot for three months and if successful will extend it to the rest of the country," said Jayanth.

The Euro 2 billion company has a manufacturing unit for lenses in Doddaballapur near Bangalore apart from the main processing unit in the city. Essilor owns more than 85 per cent of the main administrative unit of Essilor SRF Optics, which has been operational since 1998. Overall the company has invested close to $15 million in the Indian operations.

The joint venture has a turnover of close to $12 million and according to Jayanth, is growing at more than the 25 per cent rate at which plastic lens adoption in India is growing annually. The company is headquartered in Bangalore with regional offices in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

"We want to expand in India and shift the present revenue base from glass to plastics. China is almost a 70 per cent plastics market but India is still at only 12 per cent. But India also shows one of the highest growth rates in the work for plastics at 25 per cent," said Jayanth.