Optika Anda Takes the Leading Position in the Croatian Eyewear Market

If the name of the company Servus from Split means nothing to you, you will probably be surprised if we tell you that it is the leader in the Croatian retail eyewear market. But that is indeed the case. The fact is that the Split company is much better known by its brand than by its name. The brand is Optika Anda, and if that still means nothing to you, it is the one whose ambassador is Tonči Huljić with that, mildly irritating to the author of this text, song that starts with ‘škiljim, škiljim, škiljim ja…’. Personal opinions about the advertisement are completely irrelevant given that it evidently has quite an effect on the business success of the company Servus.

If we measure the leading position in the eyewear sales market by the number of outlets, or sales points and their territorial distribution, the number of ophthalmological practices, or the number of employees, the Zagreb-based Ghetaldus optika would be far ahead of all. This company, founded back in 1957 and today predominantly owned by the Kokanović family, still manages to confirm its former status as the largest optician in the former Yugoslavia with about a hundred outlets across Croatia, 30 ophthalmological practices, and more than 300 employees. However, for the past two years, not in financial results.

As of 2021, Ghetaldus optika had a total revenue of 21.4 million euros, which was about 3.5 million euros stronger than Servus, or Optika Anda. By 2022, Ghetaldus optika’s revenue fell to 20.6 million euros, while Servus’s jumped to 22.6 million euros. An even greater gap when comparing the multi-year profit and loss accounts of these two companies is evident in the net profit item. In the last five years for which their business results have been publicly disclosed (thus, excluding last year), Ghetaldus optika had variable net profit performance (the lowest in 2019 when it was 232 thousand euros, the highest in 2020 when it was 1.08 million), while Servus’s profit consistently grew from 1.29 million euros in 2018 to 4.1 million in 2022, or six and a half times more than Ghetaldus optika achieved that year.

The passion of the people from Split for buying sunglasses was more than a good basis for Nina Banović’s decision to profile her company Servus, registered for domestic and foreign trade, tourism, hospitality, and services, which she founded in 1994, a few years later, by opening the first optical store with three employees, precisely in that segment of trade. It took her a year to realize how to stand out from the multitude of small sunglasses retailers by expanding the offer to prescription glasses, so in 2000, she opened another optical store, this time enriched with the ophthalmological Polyclinic Anda, where the first ophthalmologist and the first optician were employed. This laid the foundations for a company that would, over the next two decades, grow into the most successful business in that market in Croatia with a recognizable brand.

There are three key risks for the continued expansive growth of Optika Anda. The biggest risk in this industry is always a decline in purchasing power, which is not currently happening, but it is impossible to know when it might occur. The second risk is related to the conditions for purchasing goods for sale. Since the merger of the French Essilor and the Italian Luxottica in 2018, the two largest global manufacturers of lenses and eyewear, which created the conglomerate EssilorLuxottica, from whose factories almost all major designer eyewear brands (Bvlgari, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Miu Miu, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Versace, Ray Ban, Vogue…) come to market, this supplier can dictate prices at will, which it does. Customers, in this case, Optika Anda, have two options: either accept increasingly unfavorable conditions for purchasing goods every year or seek new and more favorable suppliers. The question is only where to find them and how to maintain a reputation without the most recognized brands. The third risk is the skilled workforce, which is more than lacking in the market.

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