Page 58 - The Indian Digital Edition September-October 2020

OPTICAL INDUSTRY

LOOKS FOR

CALIBRATED

SUPPORT

he ongoing pandemic has had a significant impact on both the practice
of ophthalmology and the eye care market in India, like most sectors.
TFor the months between April to June, most of the small practitioners
were shut, the major eye care centres did emergency procedures.
Even as the economic activity has been opened up in a phased manner by the
Union and State Governments, there is very little momentum in eye health practices.
Several reasons underscore this trend. For example, people are postponing elective
surgeries, Govt's have slowed down schemes and focussed completely on COVID19
and falling income levels are forcing people to drop buying beyond vision devices.

An optimistic estimate will show 30-35 percent opening up of eyecare centres
in Metros and State capitals now compared to pre-COVID 19. There have been
attempts to push online business by some of the players like Lenskart etc., says
M Somasekhar
Ramachandran P, an industry veteran and Business Consultant, Eyecare Sector.

The near term outlook also is quite challenging say experts spoken to. With the
contraction in the economy and revenue shortfalls hitting states, it's anybody's guess
as to how the consumer trends will change and Govt programmes suffer. Investment
in new technologies and equipment could also fall. Therefore, the optical industry
needs to rethink its strategy of meeting consumer demands.

INDIAN DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

According to a Deloitte report the size of the Indian eyewear market was USD
7.4 billion in 2018. It was projected to grow at a CAGR of over 9 per cent to reach
USD 13.6 billion by 2024 driven by strong demographics and the growing economy.
Given the potential, the domestic optical industry has been gearing up to invest
in manufacturing and scale up. The eyewear market is dominated by unorganised
sector accounting for nearly 75 percent of the overall market.
At present, most of the players are Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),
except for Titan, Lenskart etc. More than half a dozen of the global biggies like
Essilor, Bausch & Lomb, Johnson & Johnson, Hoya Corporation, Carl Zeiss etc are
prominently present. The welcome trend is the growth of the organised sector in
recent years. However, the cost of capital is the impediment that entrepreneurs
are facing today. "We must create an industry climate for mass-scale manufacture

| SEPT-OCT 2020 | 54 REPORT