Eyewear retailer Clearly is expanding its presence in the competitive optical market in Canada with a handful of new stores in the near future and more to come later.
Arnaud Bussieres, the company’s CEO, said Clearly’s plan is to be the leader of vision care in Canada and continuing to grow from its existing store count of four stores in the country.
“The plan is probably to be between 12 and 15 stores within the next 24 months,” he said. “That would be a broader outlook of where we want to be.”
The parent company is EssilorLuxottica, originally from France and Italy, and a worldwide leader in the optical industry.
Clearly is a vision care company providing vision to consumers in Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. It sells contact lenses, eyeglasses and sunglasses online and in stores. The stores also have clinics for eye exams and the company also designs eyewear, carrying its own brands. The first Canadian store opened in 2013 in Vancouver.
Currently, there are four stores in Canada – two in Vancouver on Robson Street and West 4th Avenue, one in Toronto on Queen Street, and one in Calgary at CF Chinook Centre. The Queen Street location is moving into a bigger location right next door to where it currently exists.
New stores are opening in Ottawa at CF Rideau Centre, in Edmonton at the West Edmonton Mall and in Mississauga at Square One Shopping Centre. Ottawa’s opening was delayed due to the trucker protest in downtown Ottawa. Edmonton and Mississauga locations should open by mid March.
“And we have plans to keep on expanding so that we have one showroom or one store in every large Canadian hub,” said Bussieres, adding that Quebec is on the company’s radar.
“When we think about locations, what we’re looking for is very large population hubs . . . and then we usually try to have one showroom or two maximum within one very large area. So that’s why in Vancouver for instance we have two and in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) we’ll have two between Queen Street and Mississauga. We really try to be very close to large buckets of population.”
Clearly locations are typically between 1,200 and 1,300 square feet.
Bussieres said the optical market is fascinating because everyone needs correction or protection. It’s an ‘enormous’ consumer industry and there will be consumer needs.
“So the number of players to supply those needs to be honest is not so big. It’s competitive, yes, because there is a lot of noise (with international players such as Specsavers moving into the Canadian market),” he said. “But it’s just a very big market where everyone needs protection or some kind of correction.”
The expansion is rooted in furthering the success of its pillar programs including the Free Glasses for Kids program and the Buy One, Give One program.
“There is a bit of lack of awareness about the Clearly brand. What people don’t know and what makes us different is we are the only ones to offer everything in terms of services and product at every single price point. For instance we sell eyeglasses that start at $9. These are in Canada from a company that is Canadian, headquartered in Vancouver. Most of our competitors that do that they’re all based in China or overseas. So we’ve decided to stay here to create employment for Canada and to really double down on our Canadian roots,” said Bussieres.
He also said the company’s mission is to eliminate poor vision as about 2.5 billion people worldwide don’t see properly. They don’t see properly because they either can’t access a doctor or a point of sale where they buy prescription glasses or they can’t afford eyewear.
Bussieres said 2.2 million Canadians suffer from the same problem for the same reasons.
“And so Clearly everything we do is to tackle one of those barriers which are access, affordability or awareness,” he said.
