CrossEyes set to multiply number of shops by
10 with new capital from Danish growth fund
The Danish eyewear- and optometry chain CrossEyes is in rapid growth
in England and in Denmark. With a million pound investment from
The Danish Growth Fund, the chain now wants to challenge the market
and multiply the number of stores by more than 10.
CrossEyes Eyewear & Optometry are having great
success and with The Danish Growth Fund as a new
investor, the company can now expand rapidly in the UK
and Denmark. The chains’ 15 shops are set to become
40 within a year, and will grow to more than 150 in the
years to come. CrossEyes’ aim is to challenge the
traditional eyewear market.
’So far - the collections, prices and profits over the whole
World have been controlled by one single large International
manufacturer and supplier of glasses. However, CrossEyes
are re-thinking the whole value chain. We do everything
ourselves. From the design of the shops to the eye tests,
even the glazing of the lenses. And everything is made in
Denmark. Our model changes all the power relations in the
eyewear market’, says Founder and CEO Søren Møller.
The CrossEyes model is a great investment. Franchisees
can have their own complete “Nordic Design” store
including furniture, displays, IT systems and their initial
frame collection for only £29.000. Other eyewear chains
charge up to 10 times more. That means that new
CrossEyes shops typically break even within a few
months. In fact, one store managed to break even after
just two months.
The set up cost is an important reason why CrossEyes
has experience so much interest from opticians,
especially in the UK where the chain now has six stores
and is overwhelmed with enquiries from interested
potential franchisees. But that is not the only reason.
’The financial returns possible in our model are significantly
better, than what franchisees are used to. However, at
the same time, our simple business model - with focus on
the customer experience in the store, Danish Design and
frequent new stock of frames – has clearly struck a nerve
with opticians. They are used to one excel spreadsheet
after the other and a lot of reporting to management in the
traditional eyewear chains. We have pretty much avoided
this with our model and own self-developed IT system’,
says Søren Møller.
Søren explains that the amount of customers in the
CrossEyes shops are currently growing at 45 % a year but
without the use of traditional marketing and discounts.
’We pretty much do not use traditional marketing and do
not run discount campaigns, which currently dominate
the market. Everything is happening socially and by word
of mouth, and our prices are always the same. In fact, we
spend very little time talking prices, as the customers can
quickly see, that our prices are much lower than the prices
of our competitors’, the Founder adds.
To The Danish Growth Fund, CrossEyes is an obvious
venture investment.
”CrossEyes is already in the market and can develop to
become much bigger in Denmark, the UK and further
abroad. Outside of Denmark, England is the largest
investment but the business is already exploring further
markets. Our capital will mainly be spent on the right people
and clever franchisees, and there is a whole new initiative
on the way which we have not revealed yet’, explains Jakob
Fuhr Hansen from The Danish Growth Funds’ VF Venture.
Read more about CrossEyes here www.crosseyes.co.uk
For more information and to set up
interviews, please contact:
Marianne van Gils Nicolaou, CrossEyes UK:
[email protected], 07939690412