Vision Redefined

Running the biggest manufacturing plant in Goa, shipping over 20,000 lenses per day, GKB Hi-Tech under the leadership of Mahendra Kumar Gupta and his sons, Shobit and Neeraj, has taken the company to unprecedented heights both domestically as well as globally

Over half a decade old, GKB Hi-Tech was started by four brothers in Agra, with a vision to manufacture the best possible quality of ophthalmic lenses for not only India but the international market, as well.

It was this zeal to export ‘Made in India’ products which bought Mahendra K. Gupta to Goa in 1982 to set up a 100% export-oriented unit to export high quality lenses
GKB Hi-Tech came into existence in 1991 after the GKB family business separation and was wholly owned by Mahendra K. Gupta, an engineer from IIT, BHU and his family.
GKB has always been the number-one company in India to provide the highest quality of ophthalmic lenses with the help of the latest equipment, plant and machinery.
GKB Hi-Tech grew its business in the domestic as well as export market for its products, which were mainly Rx (made to order) lenses for the market.
Shobit Gupta, the older son of Mahendra K. Gupta, after finishing his Mechanical Engineering from MNIT Jaipur joined the business in 1995 while Neeraj Gupta, the younger son, an Electronics Engineer from NIT, Surathkal joined in 1997.

With Shobit looking after sales and marketing of the company and Neeraj looking after the operations, GKB Hi- Tech grew over 50 times in sales from 1997 to 2007.

The company has continued to be a pioneer in using the latest technologies as they built one of the most advanced
IT systems in the industry to deliver continuous growth over so many years.

Not only is GKB Hi-Tech present in every corner of India today, it has one of the biggest production units in the Middle East in Sharjah, UAE from where it caters to its Middle East market and exports into Europe. Today, there are over 100 people working in the UAE plant of GKB Hi-Tech and are expanding further to take sales in Sharjah to over 100 crores in 2024.

GKB Hi-Tech also has its own companies in South Africa, Israel, and few other countries and is one of the major players, in these countries in the prescription lens market.
GKB Hi-Tech always adopted a ‘go to the market’ policy, domestically as well as globally. They logistically connect the entire country with their offices, distribution system and manufacturing units and are able supply lenses overnight or within 2 days.
In India, GKB Hi-Tech is headquartered out of Goa and Bangalore, with production, finance and back office being looked after in Goa while sales, marketing and IT is handled in Bangalore.

Product Line
GKB Hi-Tech has been into manufacturing of ophthalmic lens since its inception. The majority of lenses which are
used currently were first made in India by GKB Hi-Tech, whether it was progressive lenses, hi-index lenses, and anti
reflection/glare lenses.
Presently, GKB Hi-Tech has expanded its portfolio to sell not only its in-house brands like Swiss by GKB, Revo, Ashai Gold but is also the exclusive licensed manufacturer of KODAK branded lenses for India and the Middle East.
From 2020 onwards, GKB Hi-Tech has entered into the spectacle frame manufacturing line and launched its own brand of frames under the BERG Miyama, Leon, K+ brands, which have become the top 10 selling frame brands in the country within a span of less than 18 months.
GKB Hi-Tech has pioneered the concept of a single manufacturer selling the entire spectacle. Till date, the industry has seen separate manufacturers for lens and the frame which resulted in higher prices. Using its technical and IT knowledge, GKB Hi-Tech has been able to merge two different manufacturing technologies to offer the customer a single spectacle solution which results in higher margins for the opticians and better pricing for the consumer.
GKB Hi-Tech is an extensive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for optical retail chains in India and abroad where the majorities including new-age online players are the main customers of GKB Hi-Tech manufactured products. These chains find GKB Hi-Tech a conscientious partner, one who is able to deliver a world-class product, on time and along with competitive pricing. These retail chain partners always come back to GKB Hi-Tech when they need new products created for them and such partnerships have been mutually beneficial; nearly 35% of GKB Hi-Tech sales come from such long-term partnerships.

Distribution Network
When a consumer wants to buy spectacles then they generally go to an optical shop or online store, they choose a frame and a lens and are usually told to come back in a few days to collect the new pair of spectacles. At this point the work of GKB Hi-Tech starts as that optical store will request GKB Hi-Tech to make the lenses or the entire pair of spectacles, which have to be delivered to the optical store in 2 to 4 days.
GKB Hi-Tech handles 17000 to 20000 of such individual orders every day and delivers them to 14000 different opticians in India or abroad, in a matter of a few days.
In order to do this, GKB Hi-Tech has its own distribution system which uses IndiGo airlines and numerous delivery partners, instead of using couriers, which are often too slow for their needs. They are able to get lenses made in Goa delivered to opticians in Delhi, Mumbai etc in 6 hours, that is from the time the orders leave their factory in Tivim to the time they are delivered to the optician in Delhi; while a normal courier takes around 48 to 72 hours.
The new MOPA airport is a boon for GKB Hi-Tech as the transit time to the airport is only 25 minutes as against 70 minutes to Dabolim. GKB Hi-Tech runs its plants in Goa and Coimbatore 24/7 to meet delivery commitments with the parcel leaving for the airport 9 times a day starting from 2 am in the morning.

Management Style
GKB Hi-Tech has always followed a technology-first management style and has invested a huge amount of money and time in creating an IT system which has no parallel. Its IT system has been studied and adapted by the largest of multinationals as it is simple, yet so advanced.
This single investment allows free exchange of information and data across all parts of the company. The system controls each and every machine as well as every step in the manufacturing, sales and finance department.

The Management Information Systems (MIS) enable the management to take quick decisions by predicting the future growth and demand of the market. It also helps GKB Hi-Tech to pre-innovate the products which the market will demand in the future looking at fashion trends in eyewear.
This has allowed GKB to have an extremely efficient and neat organisation which has a nearly 20% cost advantage over its competition, allowing them to be very competitive in product pricing.
Company operations which include manufacturing, purchase, logistics and the entire back office departments report to Neeraj; while the entire sales and marketing departments report to Shobit.

Technological Advances
GKB Hi-Tech was earlier producing lenses. Opticians used to buy the frames themselves and when the lenses arrived they would fit it according to the specification. This called for manual intervention and chances of error manifold.
GKB Hi-Tech realised that it has to bring frames and lenses at one point, organise an automatic fitting and provide the spectacles to the opticians with most accurate specifications. There used to be wastage of about 15% but now it is only 1%. It was essential to bring in frames for the market, provide them to the opticians so that they can order the complete spectacle and get the delivery of a complete fitted spectacle as per prescription at a competitive rate. This called for a lot of modernisation of plant and equipment; IT oriented logistics and elimination of any human intervention to eliminate errors.

That is how GKB Hi-Tech became the first to offer complete spectacles to opticians in the country. This gave GKB Hi-Tech a huge competitive advantage over the other players in the market.
Another technological advance is the SPEXMOJO app which allows consumers to choose any frame that they like online and buy it offline from the nearest optician. The investment into such technology and creating membership of opticians to partner with the app enables them to digitally showcase their frames and allows consumers to interact with opticians in a digital environment.
SPEXMOJO is changing the trade of eyewear and provides transparency for the consumer to buy the spectacle of their choice.

 

Future Plans
GKB Hi-Tech is running one of India’s biggest lens manufacturing plants in Goa which ships over 20000 lenses per day. Last year, it set up another plant in Coimbatore and it is already shipping 5000 lenses per day which will be increased to 8000 lenses a day by December 2023. GKB Hi-Tech is in the process of setting a second plant in Goa for which it is investing over `50 crore. Plant 2 has started production and the capacity will be eventually ramped up to 10000 lenses a day by December 2023. Once plant 2 is fully operational, the Goa facility will be one of the largest in Asia and will employ over 1400 people. GKB Hi-Tech will also aggressively expand SPEXMOJO and its frames line to cover another 4000 opticians from the 1500 currently on SPEXMOJO. In 2023 the Sharjah facility in UAE will be upgraded to increase automation as well as capacities. Overall GKB Hi-Tech group aims to cross `500 crore revenue in 2024 from `375 crore it plans on crossing in 2023 and aims to invest over `75 crore in capacity and technology over the next two years.