Gangar Eyenation banks on retail-driven brand building

Completing more than 40 years of being a steady leader in ophthalmological care and eyewear services, Gangar Eyenation today owns 75+ retail outlets across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa. With each store comes top-of-the-tier technology in eye care and more than 100 international brands of eyewear under each roof. Director Jigar Gangar and his brothers are the team behind its recent success and the brand’s enterprise.

Founded in 1977 as a family enterprise, Gangar Opticians (as they were previously called) led the business in an advanced solution-oriented pathway. At a time where ophthalmology depended entirely on manual diagnosis, founders Surendra and Champak Gangar introduced computerised eye-testing technology in a retail capacity. The guiding principle remained what it remains till date: Every customer should be able to afford eye care and eyewear and with no compromise on quality. This unfolded yet another opportunity for them to be drawn in their market: Customisation, they believed that in creating more variety in a product that seemed 'medical' in its stance, customisation of lenses and designs would break into an average person’s lifestyle, creating an opportunity of a “personal style statement.”

This made it very easy for the brand to unify varied customers under the brand umbrella. Of course, this revelation was supported their ambition for advancement in technological support. Gangar Opticians was among the first brands in the country to use automated machinery to cut lens. It provides details that are like a fingerprint of your eye. It can measure your eye code data, frame data and visual behaviour. Their system also helps in recording and measuring the 4D measurements of your head and eye to create the perfect high definition, super digital progressive lens for your new eyeglass frames. This was far more than any other competitor at the time was, as cutting lenses was actually a laborious and time-consuming manual affair. These technologically high-end machines are also available in their Tier – II and Tier – III emerging cities.

The brand has added a new dimension to the eyewear concept, with latest collections from across the world, constantly defining the style and comfort quotient of the eyewear designing business.

When Gangar Opticians rebranded itself to Gangar Eyenation in 2007, their brand footing had become so powerful that their customer-retail relationships were almost all organic. Today, Jigar Gangar and his brothers lead with the veteran philosophy that has made the brand a massive retail conglomerate. From Jigar Gangar’s standpoint, their secret lay in converting customer relations into brand insights. The approach that made them so reliable was their innate ability to not just provide variety to their consumers, but also adapt to changing trends.

Moreover, state-of-the-art technology acted as the key catalyst in staying ahead of the competition. Today, as a mandatory corporate rule, every outlet – especially the ones in Tier – II and Tier - III cities, have eye-evaluation technology that helps make them a highly approachable and reliable brand among the masses.