Lenstore is an online optical retailer, specialising in

contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...

es, solutions and other accessories and eye care products.

History

Lenstore was founded on 3 January 2008 by Oxford graduate, Mitesh Patel. The website went live on 11 June 2008 and by 2012 the company had entered the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 in 10th place. Lenstore had served over 100,000 customers by 2013, despite not being the only online-only lens and glasses retailer in the UK. This growth was aided by a desire in the UK to buy lenses cheaper, and not just from high street opticians. Guides were subsequently created to help UK customers identify the correct lens to purchase online (as high street opticians would often rebrand lenses). In late 2013, the

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

was acquired by GrandVision. This saw Lenstore become a sister company to UK high-street

optician An optician, or ''dispensing optician'', is a technical practitioner who designs, fits and dispenses lenses for the correction of a person's vision. Opticians determine the specifications of various ophthalmic appliances that will give the nec ...

Vision Express Vision Express is a British company established in 1988 that sells spectacles and contact lenses. History The company opened its first store in 1988, at the MetroCentre, Gateshead, quickly followed by several other stores. In October 1993 ...

, allowing the company to offer customers face-to-face eye care. A version of the Lenstore website was launched in Germany in 2016.

In the media

In April 2018 Lenstore & Nikon created the world's first gigapixel

timelapse Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and th ...

, with London as the subject. The 7.3 gigapixel timelapse was taken from the top of Canary Wharf using a

Nikon D850 The Nikon D850 is a professional-grade full-frame digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) produced by Nikon. The camera was officially announced on July 25, 2017 (the 100th anniversary of Nikon's founding), launched on August 24, 2017, and firs ...

camera and a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm lens. In 2019 Lenstore teamed up with charity Colour Blindness Awareness UK to highlight the plight of people with

colour blindness Color blindness or color vision deficiency (CVD) is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color. It can impair tasks such as selecting ripe fruit, choosing clothing, and reading traffic lights. Color blindness may make some aca ...

by showcasing how they see the world. The campaign highlighted 3 different types of colour blindness including Tritanopia, Protanopia and Deuteranopia.Beautylux
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References

{{reflist Eyewear retailers of the United Kingdom British opticians Retail companies established in 2008 Online retailers of the United Kingdom Companies based in the London Borough of Merton British companies established in 2008