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Eye-Q Super Specialty Eye Hospitals are set to enter Nigeria in next three to four months. The company is already in talks with a local partner in Africa for its first hospital.
The eye-care chain, which currently has about 44 hospitals in India, plans to invest $2 million in the Nigerian venture, said Rajat Goel, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder.
“Our philosophy is to go to places that are underserved and the situation in Nigeria is as basic as tier II and III cities in India. We are trying to figure out what will be the right model there,” Goel told BusinessLine .
The company is present in small towns and cities and has avoided metros in India. It hopes to open 100 hospitals in India over the next three years.
Eye-Q, which employs over 700 people, has been concentrated in North India with a few facilities in the West.
Over the course of the next couple of fiscals, the company will focus on West India, and hopes to start 20 hospitals in tier-II and III cities of Maharashtra such as Nashik, Aurangabad and Jalgaon. The company, which saw revenues of ₹75 crore, has about $29 million in equity and debt funding, which it would use for expansion, Goel said, adding that it aims to start 15 hospitals each fiscal and about ₹18 crore.
“We expect a 20-25 per cent growth in the current fiscal,” he said.
Tier pricingHowever, given the company’s business model, tapping underserved markets, it is looking at going into villages and has started four vision centres as a model to increase access. Goel said they are considering expanding the number of village-level vision centres. The company employs tier pricing in different centres depending on the size of the market.
“For example, if the outpatient fees in Jhajjar is ₹100, in a village vision centre it would be ₹20. Similarly, for surgical procedures too, we offer surgeries in a wide-range of price points,” Goel said.
According to Goel, Eye-Q is currently reaching about 500,000 Indian patients, and he expects a 10 per cent annual growth in that number.
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