Sarath Teganjanavanich, TOG’s vice president for business planning and finance, said that under the revamp, a new fully automated machine will be imported from Germany to replace the current conventional production line of prescription lenses.
“We have seen high-growth potential for prescription lenses due to its progressive technology. It is a great opportunity for the company to raise the standard of the product and service quality,” he said.
The machine will arrive at its factory at the beginning of next month and the new production line for prescription lenses will commence operations from the first quarter of next year.
Sarath said that TOG’s factory in Bang Bua Thong produced about 30 million lenses totally a year, of which 29 million are glass-moulded lenses and only 1 million are prescription lenses.
The new fully automated production line will allow the company to increase annual production capacity for prescription lenses from 1 million units to 2 million.
Officially formed in 1991, TOG has been in operation for almost 60 years, starting from a retail shop selling eyeglasses. About 96 per cent of the company’s total revenue currently comes from exports.
“We have seen great potential for optical lenses in many markets worldwide. Of the 7.2 billion world population, about 4.5 billion of them need eyeglasses for visual correction.
However, there are currently only 2.5 billion people who use eyeglasses or 55-60 per cent penetration,” said Sarath.
TOG currently exports optical lenses to more than 50 countries of which 40 per cent of exports are to Europe, 30 per cent to Australia and New Zealand, between 15 per cent and 20 per cent to Asia, 8 to 10 per cent to USA, and the rest to the Middle East and Africa.
“Our strength is from the roll out of innovative optical lenses as well as the product and service quality, which respond to consumer requirements,” said Sarath.
He said the company’s optical lenses had been distributed via many strategic channels – retailers and wholesalers, online retailers as well as through other branded vendors under original equipment manufacturing contracts.
“We have a strong partner, who has a strong retail network in UK. With a 25-per-cent stake in TOG, the partner has more than 1,000 retail stores in UK as well as in Scandinavian countries, as well as Australia. They have contributed about 40 per cent of our export revenue,” said Sarath.
TOG expected to clock up Bt2 billion in total sales this year, up 10 per cent over last year. The company has set annual growth target at about 10 per cent every year over the next two to three years to reach Bt2.4 billion revenue in 2018.