Lenskart to invest $10 million to strengthen private label AquaLens

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Mar 4, 2019

Omni-channel eyewear company Lenskart Solutions will be investing $10 million (Rs 71 crore) to strengthen its third private label brand AquaLens.
 

Lenskart wants to position AquaLens, which was launched a year ago as a fashion brand, to tap into the booming eyewear fashion market in the country. It will invest in product innovation, backend integration and, trial facilities. AquaLens is the firm’s third private label brand after John Jacobs and Vincent Chase.
 
Private labels had helped Lenskart narrow its losses to Rs 118 crore for the fiscal year 2018 as compared to Rs 263 crore it had posted for the financial year 2016-17.

Lenskart has appointed Indranil Chakravarty as the chief business officer of Aqualens who will be responsible to build the brand and drive growth in this segment.
 
“We want to disrupt contact lenses and repeat what we have done in the eyeglasses sector, where we have emerged as the largest player in the organised market in the country,” CEO of Lenskart Peyush Bansal told the Economic Times.
 
“The contact lens market in India is a small one about Rs 600 crore currently which has not seen any disruption so far and has been dominated by a few global names. Our plan is to make this a $100-million business very quickly. There are a lot of opportunities, and I hope we can build a brand that will be larger than the overall category as it is today,” Bansal added.
 
Lenskart has a network of over 450 franchise outlets across India in over 100 cities and also retails international labels such as Oakley, French Connection, Ray-Ban, and Tommy Hilfiger along with its three private labels.