From ₹1,500 frames to ₹40,000-plus Dior, from 20-minute eyewear to biometric lens technology, GKB is using its 100th store and a new brand identity to widen its fashion and lifestyle proposition…
For a brand that began with an optical store in Kolkata more than six decades ago, GKB is making a rather significant change: it is dropping the word “Opticals” from its name. But the timing is perhaps more important than the name change itself. The transition to GKB coincides with the opening of its 100th store at Linking Road, Khar West, Mumbai, and the appointment of Bollywood actress Sanya Malhotra as its national brand ambassador. Together, the moves signal an attempt to reposition a legacy optical retailer for a consumer who increasingly sees eyewear as fashion, technology and lifestyle rather than simply vision correction.
“The transition from GKB Opticals to GKB feels very organic as it reflects our philosophy and vision for the future of eyewear,” says Priyanka Gupta, Director, GKB. “Even though our heritage remains integral to the brand, we are now concentrating on developing our products further in terms of fashion, premium, luxury and lifestyle.”
The 100th Store Is Only the Visible Milestone
GKB’s retail footprint has been evolving considerably before the latest rebranding. Its website describes a network spanning 29 cities and 20 states, with a mix of 44 high-street and 50 mall doors, while the company’s latest communication marks the 100th-store milestone in Mumbai. The retailer describes itself as a multi-brand eyewear chain operating in premium locations, with more than 50 brands and a portfolio that includes both stylish and luxury eyewear.
That mall-plus-high-street spread is significant because GKB is not relying on a single retail environment to build its business. Its stores have historically combined neighbourhood and destination shopping with mall retail, while newer concepts are becoming more specialised. The company has also been refreshing existing stores; its South City Mall outlet in Kolkata, for instance, recently moved to a new location within the mall with a contemporary format and 20-minute lens dispensing.
The result is a network in which the store is increasingly being treated as an experience platform rather than simply a place where a prescription is converted into a pair of spectacles.
A ₹1,500-to-₹40,000-Plus Eyewear Ladder
The premium positioning does not mean GKB has abandoned accessible price points. In fact, its current online assortment reveals a surprisingly broad price architecture. GKB’s own Inspira frames are listed at around ₹1,500–₹3,500, while products from brands such as Emporio Armani currently appear around ₹12,490–₹15,390 and Burberry products range from roughly ₹19,490 to ₹34,290 on its website. At the luxury end, Dior eyewear introduced through GKB’s Vision Lounge in Mumbai starts at approximately ₹40,000.
That spread is strategically useful. It allows GKB to build a premium image without becoming a retailer accessible only to luxury consumers. The same platform can serve a consumer looking for an everyday frame, a fashion-conscious customer looking for an international brand, and a high-net-worth shopper looking for a highly curated luxury product.
The retailer’s contact-lens business adds another layer, with current products listed from around ₹2,700 to more than ₹6,000, depending on brand and type.
The more revealing point, however, is that GKB is not treating price merely as a merchandising exercise. It is creating different shopping propositions around different consumer needs.
From 20-Minute Eyewear to Bespoke Luxury
One of those propositions is EyeLab, GKB’s shop-in-shop concept launched in Kolkata. Its 1,000-sq.-ft. format was designed around the combination of fashionable eyewear, affordability and speed, with an in-store lens edging laboratory enabling selected eyewear to be delivered in around 20 minutes. At launch, EyeLab offered a two-spectacle package for ₹2,000, demonstrating that the company’s retail architecture could address value-conscious consumers even while the larger GKB proposition moved upmarket.
At the other end sits the Vision Lounge, which is almost the opposite retail proposition. The Mumbai concept was created as a bespoke luxury eyewear and eye-care destination, with brands including Cartier, Maybach, Montblanc, Tiffany, Christian Dior and Prada. It also introduced advanced eye-testing technology, including Rodenstock’s DNEye Scanner and B.I.G. technology, which uses thousands of data points from the eye to calculate highly personalised lenses.
This creates an interesting retail spectrum: speed at one end, extreme personalisation at the other.
GKB’s ambition is therefore not simply to move every customer towards a more expensive frame. It is to create multiple reasons for consumers to engage with the brand.
Lens Becomes Part of the Fashion Proposition
GKB has also been trying to change the occasion around which eyewear is purchased. Its Wedding Edit, now in its fifth edition, has evolved into a travelling luxury eyewear showcase across Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, featuring brands such as YSL, Balmain, Maybach, Miu Miu, Dior, Celine, Cartier and Mykita. The initiative positions eyewear as part of occasion dressing rather than an afterthought to it.
That is important to GKB’s fashion strategy because it changes the conversation from “I need new glasses” to “I need the right eyewear for this look, occasion or personality.”
The company’s broader assortment now includes names such as MYKITA, Masunaga, Bvlgari, Chopard, TAG Heuer and Ray-Ban Meta, while the current online store categorises products under fashion, sports, everyday and luxury edits.
Technology Is Becoming Part of the Product
Technology is another pillar of the repositioning. GKB has introduced 3D Virtual Try-On, digital lens mapping and customised lens solutions, while its newer retail proposition includes specialised Lens Experience Zones and paediatric myopia clinics. Its home-service model takes eye testing and frame selection outside the store, with the company having previously described a portable testing setup and a curated selection of around 100 frames for home consultations.
The company has also moved beyond vision. Its partnership with Widex brought audiology services into selected GKB stores, with the retailer describing the concept as a way of bringing eye care and hearing care together under one roof. The initial rollout covered stores in Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.
And in 2025, GKB brought Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses to its network. The collection was launched at a price starting at ₹29,900, giving the retailer a product that sits directly at the intersection of fashion, wearable technology and smart living.
Sanya Malhotra Puts a Face to the New GKB
This is where Sanya Malhotra becomes more than an additional announcement. The actor’s appointment gives GKB a contemporary fashion identity at precisely the point when the retailer is attempting to move the brand conversation beyond optics.
“I’m excited to be part of this new chapter as GKB moves into a more fashion and lifestyle-led future,” Malhotra said. “The right frames, be it glasses or sunnies, can change the way you feel, the way you present yourself and the way you express your personality.”
Her association gives the brand an opportunity to communicate eyewear as an element of personal style, particularly to younger consumers who may discover frames through fashion and culture before they think of them as an optical purchase.
The Bigger Bet Behind the Rebrand
GKB’s transformation is therefore less about replacing “Opticals” with a shorter name and more about broadening the retail proposition behind it. The business has spent years adding premium brands, luxury formats, faster service, home consultations, digital tools, advanced eye testing, hearing care and fashion-led events to a traditional optical retail model.
The company’s own positioning today describes 10,000-plus styles, virtual try-ons, customised tint solutions, hearing care, advanced eye testing and 20-minute service on selected products alongside its premium brand portfolio.
That breadth matters because GKB is entering its next phase with a business that can address multiple consumer missions without abandoning the credibility of its core category. A ₹1,500 frame and a ₹40,000 Dior frame can sit within the same retail ecosystem; a 20-minute spectacle can coexist with highly personalised biometric lenses; and a conventional eye test can lead to a luxury eyewear consultation or an audiology service.
The 100th store in Mumbai, therefore, is more than a store-count achievement. It is the physical marker of how far GKB has moved from the conventional optical-shop model. And with the transition from GKB Opticals to GKB and Sanya Malhotra becoming the face of the brand, the company is now putting a much sharper fashion and lifestyle proposition behind that century of stores.
For GKB, the next chapter may not be about selling more spectacles. It may be about making eyewear itself a bigger part of fashion retail.
