Essilor expands online with Coastal.com deal

Essilor International has expanded its presence in online distribution with an agreement to acquire Canadian vision care retailer Coastal.com for C$430m.

Coastal.com designs and distributes a wide range of optical equipment including contact lenses, prescription and non-prescription frames, sunglasses and accessories. Its key territory is North America, but it also operates in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Brazil. It reported revenue of C$218m for the fiscal year ended October 31 2013.

Essilor said the internet had an important role in helping the company fulfil its corporate objectives and that it had also diversified the consumer’s vision care purchasing process.