Rivoli Group focuses on eye care as the way forward
COMPANY BUILDS OPHTHALMIC SERVICES INTO FORMIDABLE EYEWEAR INTERESTS
Ramesh Prabhakar always had the sharp eye for a business opportunity. He’s still got it. The Vice-Chairman and Managing Partner of Dubaiheadquartered luxury retailer Rivoli is, in fact, going big on vision. He has brought together three of the Group’s eyewearfocused retail concepts under the ‘Rivoli Vision’ umbrella. From there, he plans to develop a store and online presence that will make Rivoli Vision a onestop shop for anything to do with the eye.
“It’s only in the Gulf markets that eyewear sales make up 50 per cent of the business — in most mature markets, 35-40 will be sunglasses and the rest will be ophthalmic-related,” said Prabhakar. “But even here, the market is ripe for a change.
“More people will be living to grand old ages and obviously there will be a degeneration of the optic nerves. When it comes to the young ones, you have kids starting on tablets from age three or four.
“So, the need for ophthalmic care will be growing from both ends. In the 24 months we have been putting this together, I have never been as excited about what it will mean for the Group.”
Within its Vision arm, the Dubai retailer has brought together the Avanti, Rivoli Eyezone and Style 88 concepts, with the first name representing some of the most treasured names in fashion eyewear.
Prabhakar makes one point clear — Rivoli Vision will not be about reducing the retailer’s physical store presence. In fact by year-end or early next, there will be more than 100 stores between the three concepts from the current 75 locations in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar.
Physical is critical
“With an ophthalmic business, it is absolutely important to have physical stores,” he said. “Diagnosis such as refractions have to be done oneto-one and in-store. Moreover, based on government regulations, we cannot do remote ophthalmology.
“All the locations we will adding in these three to six months are already contracted. We will be servicing anyone looking to buy a sunglass, a frame, or prescription lenses.”
Plus, by Dec. 1, Rivoli Vision will have its own dedicated e-commerce site, “where we will place all of our existing brand portfolio and have web exclusives as well. Today, we have partnerships with Kering, Richemont, Marcolin and is the preferred partner for Zeiss in the Gulf. They are all leaders in the eyewear industry and all of them realise this industry has got legs to grow a lot more.”