Looking better online and offline

Karol Wilczko, board member, managing director, Szkla.com: I’ve been working at Szkla.com for just over a year, but the company started in 2004. It’s beginnings were modest – as its founders, Jacek Młodawski and Mateusz Matula, were initially focused on online commerce. However, producers and distributors were not too keen to sell contact lenses online at that time. They didn’t want to set themselves against brick-and-mortar retail, competing against optician stores. Contact lenses were expensive at the time, and, as you know, everything is cheaper on the internet. Nevertheless, the founders of the brand believed that the business model would succeed, that there would be interest from customers and lens producers.

When was the product range expanded?

It is hard to point to a specific moment. The first few attempts to go beyond on-line retail took place in 2011. At the moment, the company is based on three pillars. We are one of the few to be switching from online to offline. All our pillars support each other. On the one hand, there is the Szkla.com online store, specialising in the sale of contact lenses, accessories, lotions and eye drops – a range that has recently been extended to include glasses. Our second pillar is the Kodano Optyk chain, which we have been developing since 2016 and offers prescription glasses, sunglasses and, of course, contact lenses. The chain now has ten stores and four more outlets are being prepared for opening this year. Along with that, our first store in Warsaw will start operating in The Warsaw Hub in 2020. We are constantly on the lookout for more locations. The ideal size for one of our stores is around 50 sqm and a surgery for a qualified optometrist has to be set up within this area. Currently we are putting a lot of work into finding a good spot in one of Warsaw’s shopping centres. Our third pillar is the vending machine business, which offers contact lenses and care lotions. We have forty or so machines in various places throughout Poland at this point. They are usually in shopping malls but we are also looking for other locations, possibly petrol stations – we are trying this concept out at a BP station in Kraków and we can already see that it is doing really well. In Warsaw, lens vending machines are available at the Plac Unii, Rondo Wiatraczna Gallery and Galeria Bemowo shopping centres. We are also planning expansion abroad – but in the immediate region, probably to our southern neighbours. The lens vending machines concept was created internally and they are produced by a Polish company. The development of the software also takes place in Poland. We have plans to sell these machines for other purposes and other business concepts, at home as well as abroad.

Which of the three pillars are you focusing on at the moment?

The Szkla.com online store has been our constant workhorse and the most profitable part of our activities. We are aiming to maintain our position as one of the leaders in the sector and keep an eye on the competition. Currently we are running a major advertising campaign involving TV ads. However, Kodano Optyk is the brand we are focused on the most at the moment. We are accelerating the development of the chain and this is where most of our commitment and investment now is. We want to build a brand that is well-known and recognised throughout Poland. And vending machines need less work and resources – it’s much easier to set up 20 or even 50 machines than open a few new stores.

You also have independent labels in your product range.

That’s right and we are satisfied with the level of interest in our products. In June, we introduced a new lens brand: #bioview. We also have our own glasses brands, which, in our opinion, are doing great on the market compared to the competition. We also have our own grinding shop and manufacture lenses for glasses.

Where will the new stores be located?

There will be openings in Galeria Amber in Kalisz, in Tulipan Łódź and two in Bydgoszcz – in Focus and Galeria Pomorska. The store in Galeria Tulipan fits into a concept of ours that is so far doing very well – as it’s located in a supermarket. We also have other opportunities in several parts of the country, including Lublin and Białystok, but for now we are focusing on development in places close to our headquarters in Kraków and where we are already present. This makes it easier for us to manage, supplement the staff and organise the supply.

What plans does Kodano Optyk have for the next few years?

Our goal is to launch dozens of stores over the next two or three years. But finding the right locations is the biggest challenge right now. Our recognition among managers and owners of shopping centres has been growing, and so we’ve been getting more and more interesting offers.

Has your chain also been affected by the Sunday trading ban?

As a chain we’re still too young to see how significant the change has been. Despite this, I believe that the introduction of non-shopping Sundays has had an impact on the turnover of Kodano Optyk. Three and sometimes four business days have been removed from the calendar each month. However, the planned introduction of a trade tax is a greater threat, from our point of view. This will hit everyone – and with the growing scale of our operations, the tax will take a significant chunk out of our margins.