NEW DELHI: Online retailer Lenskart has ramped up its top management team with senior level appointments to increase its business in a quest to become the number one eyewear company in the country.
According to Lenskart chief executive Peyush Bansal, The company has made at least five such appointments since the beginning of 2016. This has helped expand its offline presence, ramp up its manufacturing facility, hire fresh talent and create seamless consumer engagement on its platform.
"We have hired a chief operating officer for our offline business, chief human resources officer, chief financial officer and two vice presidents in recent months," he said.
Besides, the company has hired a senior executive to lead its overall manufacturing operations, who is yet to join, he added. "The appointment of these executives has also created a more professional environment within the organisation, which till now was more entrepreneur led," explained Bansal.
Former Rocket Internet employee, Sambuddha Bhattacharya, joined Lenskart as vice president in March. He holds an MBA degree from Kellogg School of Management. Bhattacharya was also the co-founder and director of ShillHippo, an online marketplace for real-life courses and workshops in India.
A person familiar with the matter said ex-director-HR at Kimberly Clark Lever, Calvin Lyngdoh, joined Lenskart as chief human resources officer early this year. Lyngdoh studied at XLRI-Jamshedpur and worked with companies including Nokia India and Cadbury India, according to his profile on professional social network LinkedIn.
Sunil Menon GR, who earlier worked with Bharti Retail and Future Retail, joined Lenskart as vice president-retail operations for offline business in January. According to his resume posted on LinkedIn, Menon’s major responsibility includes business development and expansion, franchisee network creation and development of market level strategies.
Expansion plans
Lenskart Solutions, which owns and operates Lenskart, raised Rs 400 crore in May in Series-D round of founding led by International Finance Corporation, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank. In all, Lenskart has raised more than Rs 714 crore from investors till now.
The company plans to invest more than Rs 100 crore over four years in setting up a new manufacturing facility in Prithla in Haryana, which is expected to be operational in the next six months.
"We will consolidate all our existing manufacturing facilities in the upcoming site. Currently we manufacture out of three facilities in New Delhi's Okhla area. We are looking to invest more than Rs 100 crore in this new facility over the next four years to produce 20,000 glasses every day," he said.
The company plans to double its output to 10,000 spectacles every day by the end of this year in its new facility. At present, it produces 1.5 lakh spectacles a month.
Lenskart, which currently has 200 physical outlets, plans to open another 200 stores by the end of this year, with 75 stores slated to be opened in the second quarter. It plans to open eight John Jacobs exclusive outlets by March 2017. It currently has two John Jacobs store in New Delhi and two more are coming up this month in Bengaluru.
Bansal added the company, which currently employs about 300 people, will increase the headcount at its tech office in Bengaluru. "We plan to hire 50-100 employees in the technology department. The energy of the team would go in making the Lenskart platform more customer engagement driven rather than transaction driven," he said.
The company plans to spend heavily on online 3-D trials and has recently rolled out this service on selected mobile devices. At present, Lenskart sees about 15,000 3-D trials daily on its platform, with a conversion rate of 20%.
According to Lenskart chief executive Peyush Bansal, The company has made at least five such appointments since the beginning of 2016. This has helped expand its offline presence, ramp up its manufacturing facility, hire fresh talent and create seamless consumer engagement on its platform.
"We have hired a chief operating officer for our offline business, chief human resources officer, chief financial officer and two vice presidents in recent months," he said.
Besides, the company has hired a senior executive to lead its overall manufacturing operations, who is yet to join, he added. "The appointment of these executives has also created a more professional environment within the organisation, which till now was more entrepreneur led," explained Bansal.
Former Rocket Internet employee, Sambuddha Bhattacharya, joined Lenskart as vice president in March. He holds an MBA degree from Kellogg School of Management. Bhattacharya was also the co-founder and director of ShillHippo, an online marketplace for real-life courses and workshops in India.
A person familiar with the matter said ex-director-HR at Kimberly Clark Lever, Calvin Lyngdoh, joined Lenskart as chief human resources officer early this year. Lyngdoh studied at XLRI-Jamshedpur and worked with companies including Nokia India and Cadbury India, according to his profile on professional social network LinkedIn.
Sunil Menon GR, who earlier worked with Bharti Retail and Future Retail, joined Lenskart as vice president-retail operations for offline business in January. According to his resume posted on LinkedIn, Menon’s major responsibility includes business development and expansion, franchisee network creation and development of market level strategies.
Expansion plans
Lenskart Solutions, which owns and operates Lenskart, raised Rs 400 crore in May in Series-D round of founding led by International Finance Corporation, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank. In all, Lenskart has raised more than Rs 714 crore from investors till now.
The company plans to invest more than Rs 100 crore over four years in setting up a new manufacturing facility in Prithla in Haryana, which is expected to be operational in the next six months.
"We will consolidate all our existing manufacturing facilities in the upcoming site. Currently we manufacture out of three facilities in New Delhi's Okhla area. We are looking to invest more than Rs 100 crore in this new facility over the next four years to produce 20,000 glasses every day," he said.
The company plans to double its output to 10,000 spectacles every day by the end of this year in its new facility. At present, it produces 1.5 lakh spectacles a month.
Lenskart, which currently has 200 physical outlets, plans to open another 200 stores by the end of this year, with 75 stores slated to be opened in the second quarter. It plans to open eight John Jacobs exclusive outlets by March 2017. It currently has two John Jacobs store in New Delhi and two more are coming up this month in Bengaluru.
Bansal added the company, which currently employs about 300 people, will increase the headcount at its tech office in Bengaluru. "We plan to hire 50-100 employees in the technology department. The energy of the team would go in making the Lenskart platform more customer engagement driven rather than transaction driven," he said.
The company plans to spend heavily on online 3-D trials and has recently rolled out this service on selected mobile devices. At present, Lenskart sees about 15,000 3-D trials daily on its platform, with a conversion rate of 20%.
