VANCOUVER—Kits Eyecare Ltd. (TSX: KITS), a vertically integrated, digital eyecare platform based here, reported this week that it achieved quarterly revenue of $20.3 million, representing organic growth of 60 percent, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2020. In addition, Kits said it hit a record for “active customers” of over 700,000 at quarter’s end, which was an increase from the over 500,000 active customers in the fourth quarter of 2019. For the full year, Kits achieved record revenue of $75.2 million, representing organic growth of 51 percent compared with revenue of roughly $50 million in fiscal 2019. This was the start-up firm’s first earnings announcement as a public company.

The retailer also reported record eyeglasses shipped of 21,000 pairs in the fourth quarter, “a 25x increase compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, and grew more than 100 percent quarter over quarter during 2020,” the announcement noted.

Kits, which investor Roger Hardy co-founded, completed a successful initial public offering in January, as VMAIL reported, and raised more than $40 million in the IPO process.

“It was a busy quarter and year at Kits as we achieved record results in 2020 and strong fourth quarter results, with organic revenue growth of 60 percent and full year growth of 51 percent, boosted by the success of our eyeglasses and Autoship subscription businesses,” chief executive Hardy said. “Further, we are pleased to have completed our upsized and oversubscribed initial public offering in January 2021.”

He added, “This capital will enable us to fully execute our strategic plans to become the leading vertically integrated, asset light model in eyecare. I couldn't be more excited for our team at Kits to execute on this important mission.”

In terms of bottom-line results in 2020, Kits said it generated operating cash flow of $4.2 million in fiscal 2020. Gross profit increased 57 percent to $21.4 million from $13.7 million in 2019.

Kits reported a net loss of $6.6 million, which includes one-time non-cash non-recurring IPO-related finance costs of $4.8 million, one-time IPO related costs of $0.9 million, and share-based compensation expense of $0.8 million.

Kits said it achieved “early success” with its Autoship subscription program, with 20 percent of contact lens orders via this subscription service. In addition, Kits said revenue from “recurring customers” represented 65 percent of sales.

“Kits is investing to build the most capital efficient direct-to-consumer business in eyecare,” chief financial officer Sabrina Liak said in the announcement. “A key development in 2020 was the establishment of our own design, distribution and manufacturing lab designed to improve speed and quality of service for our customers. We intend to continue expanding our optical lab and product offerings, including recently added progressive eyeglasses,” she said.