VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- KITS Eyecare, LTD., one of North America's largest retailers of contact lenses, today announced the appointment of Rob Long to Chief Marketing Officer.
Rob Long joins KITS from Dyson Canada, where he sat on the leadership team and led the Direct to Consumer division. At Dyson, he built the direct channel into a leading growth driver for the company. In 2017, he launched Dyson's first retail store at Yorkdale Mall in Toronto, which has become one of the most lucrative Dyson stores in the world.
"Rob is a proven growth marketer with extensive e-commerce and optical industry experience," said Roger Hardy, CEO of KITS. "We are thrilled to have him join the team, and I am personally excited for the chance to work with Rob again to serve customers in eyecare."
Previous to Dyson, Mr. Long was a key member of the marketing leadership team at Coastal Contacts, helping to launch the eyeglasses business in 2008. He subsequently moved to Shanghai to lead EyeBuyDirect, a leading glasses retailer, through a successful rebrand and site redesign.
"I couldn't be more excited to return to the optical industry, and to further the mission of the KITS team to build the world's best eyecare company for customers," said Rob Long, Chief Marketing Officer of KITS. "The opportunity that we have to improve the eyecare experience for customers is significant, and we're excited about the innovation we will bring to customers in the months ahead."
KITS was founded in 2018 by Roger Hardy, Sabrina Liak, and Joseph Thompson. Mr. Hardy previously founded the pioneering brand in omnichannel eyecare, Coastal Contacts. Coastal Contacts, owner of Coastal.com, Clearly.ca and Lensway.se, grew steadily to over $1 billion in aggregate eyewear sales across 120 countries and was listed on the NASDAQ before being acquired by Essilor in 2014 for $430 million.
In 2019, KITS acquired the LD Vision Group. Powered by a proprietary end-to-end technology platform, LD Vision Group manages a family of brands that has delivered 2.7 million orders to more than 1 million customers across North America. LD Vision Group was founded by Arshil Abdulla, who now oversees all technology and systems architecture for KITS.
The addition of Rob Long to the KITS team is the latest hire as the team continues to expand expertise in technology and operations. Recently, KITS also welcomed Jason Classon (co-founder of Flickr and founder of Gradfinder.com) as Vice President of Technology. On operations, current Vice President of Operations Sean Mitha is joined by Scotty Turnbull (former Director Lab operations at Coastal Contacts) as Head of Lab Operations, Eoin Lyons as Director of Marketing Operations, and Craig Culpan as Director of Operations.
About KITS Eyewear, Ltd.
KITS Eyewear, Ltd., one of North America's largest retailers of contact lenses, is building the world's best eyecare company for customers. KITS manages a number of brands including KITS.com, and Opticontacts.com which have served more than 1 million customers to date. KITS is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, and maintains offices and fulfillment centers in Toronto, Buffalo, and Richmond, British Columbia. For more information please visit http://www.KITS.com.
SOURCE KITS Eyecare LTD.
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