Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart, on Wednesday slipped into a net loss of Rs 102.3 crore in FY22 as against a net profit of about Rs 29 crore in FY21, despite reporting an other income of about Rs 115 crore.
The eyewear brand, operated by Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd reported a nearly 66% year-on-year jump in its revenue from operations at Rs 1502.7 crore against Rs 905 crore, according to a filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
With FY22's total expenses rising 72.8% to about Rs 1,726 crore versus Rs 999 crore, the eyewear company incurred abut 71.9% higher cost on advertising and promotion at about Rs 234.6 crore. Its employee benefit expenses also surged about 53% in the year-ended March 2022, at Rs 245 crore.
It paid about Rs 305 crore as commission to selling agents in the year ended March 2022, a nearly 64% jump from FY21. The eyewear retailer’s telephone postage expenses rose to about Rs 42.3 crore, against Rs 27.7 crore in the financial year ended March 2021.
Stock in trade expenses were Rs 131.4 crore in the last financial year against Rs 68.5 incurred in FY21, while the cost of material consumed rose 74% on-year at about Rs 485 crore, the filings showed.
“While India continues to be profitable, we have invested in Middle East as a new market, and continue to invest more strongly in Southeast Asia...because these are new markets, (they) require some investment for a while, so considerably, the loss is still not that large,” said Peyush Bansal, co-founder and chief executive in an interview. He added that of the total revenues, about ₹1,400 crore was from Lenskart’s India operations.
Its revenue from the sale of its products, its key revenue contributor, was about 65.6% higher on-year in the last financial year, at Rs 1418 crore. Revenue from services, primarily, subscription fees, was about 13.4% higher at Rs 48.8 crore.
The leading brand, in June, picked up a controlling stake in Japanese direct-to-consumer (D2C) eyewear brand Owndays, in a bid to place itself as one of the largest omni-channel players in the category in Asia.
The omnichannel player, VCCircle reported in August, is working on plans to shift its entire manufacturing in Southeast Asia, including recently-acquired Japanese eyewear chain Owndays, to its largest manufacturing facility in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan.
Lenskart also announced the expansion of its online presence by offering its products on Nykaa, Myntra, Tata Cliq and other platforms, recently.
