Prescription Eyewear the parent company of glassesdirect.com has added Nordic online contact lens seller LensOn to its portfoilio for an investment believed to be around $20m.
The company, which also is parent of myOptique.com and SunglassesShop.com, now covers all three major segments in the eyewear market - Rx eyewear, sunglassses and contact lenses. It added that the deal would expand PEL's geographical footprint across Europe, with more than 60 per cent of its sales coming from outside its UK home market. It reported that the combined group, with a total staff of some 140 in the UK and Sweden, was profitable with combined group gross retail sales in 2012 of nearly £30m.
On December 12 Jamie Murray Wells tweeted: 'Just announced a $19.3m fundraise/acquisition of http://Lenson.com,' describing it as a milestone.
PEL's chief executive Kevin Cornils said: 'LensOn has established itself as a strong player across the Nordic region and we look forward to working with them to grow their busienss not only into new European markets, but also to complement their current contact lens offering with prescription glasses and sunglasses.'
He claimed the deal solidified PEL's position as the clear market leader in the fast-growing European online eyewear category and positions it well to take advantage of the significant shift we're seeing as consumers increasingly choose the internet for the choice, value and convenience that it offers.
LensOn founders will contuinue to manage the LensOn busienss in the Nordic region.
PEL added that the European eyewear market was estimated at over €25bn, of which on 3-4 per cent was currently online. 'As the optical market follows other high-growth ecommerce categories such as fashion and apparel towards online penetration rates closer to 10 per cent, the company has identified a €304bn opportunity in the European online market over the next 3-5 years.'
The company said the LensOn acquisition capped a busy year that saw the recent launch of the premier myOptique.com site, the launch of Glasses Direct's latest internally designed and developed house brand Scout, and the addition of Vision Express founder Dean Butler as non-executive director to its board of directors.