Davich CEO eyes global presence

By Lee Min-hyung

Davich Optical CEO Kim In-gyu says he wants to be a happiness messenger through glasses.

Before launching the nation’s largest optical products chain in 2000, he started a small glasses store in Busan in 1986. He said he was inspired to jump into the business after realizing how happy customers are after they bought glasses.

“My brother-in-law was running a glasses store before I launched my own store,” Kim said. “I used to go there and saw people leaving the store happy that they had bought their new glasses.”

But his business did not go as well as he expected.

“Three years after I got started, I had to close the store as thieves broke into my store on a holiday,” he said. “But I couldn’t forget seeing people excited to see a brighter world with their new glasses.”

That is why he decided to devote his life to the glasses business.

“I prepared again to open another store, more determined and more carefully,” he said. “My business then began to prosper, so I did not hesitate to launch the chain store Davich Optical.”

Davich has grown into the nation’s largest glasses chain with some 200 stores across the country. But Kim wanted to share what he calls the happiness of wearing glasses with people all around the world.

In 2008, Davich opened its first overseas store, in Los Angeles.

“We have a plan to launch 3,000 stores across the world by 2030,” Kim said.

But selling optical products is not what Davich is all about.

In 2007, the company opened a Davich Optical academy program that offers education for would-be opticians for four months. Davich has since educated 231 opticians, fully equipped with professional know-how and skills, he said.

He said one of the key features of the program is the Davision customer reception system.

“The Davision system converges information with technology, enabling Davich employees to offer the best customer experience possible,” Kim said.

“We developed the system, focusing on maximizing customers’ happiness. Davision offers 26 IT-based customer management systems from the time our customers enter the store, until the time they leave. Officials from a number of countries, including China and Japan, are visiting Davich headquarters in Seoul to benchmark our management systems.”