While some international brands are shutting shop in a difficult retail market, Japanese eyewear chain Owndays Singapore is expanding.

It has opened its 18th outlet in Tiong Bahru Plaza, and is planning even more outlets. Its first store opened at Plaza Singapura in 2013.

Singapore MD for the company Takeshi Umiyama says the plan is to have up to 25 outlets in the city state within the next two years.

Owndays, which makes its own spectacles and sunglasses, earned S$25.5 million (US$18.8 million) last year, 75 per cent more than the $14.6 million the previous year.

Customers can usually collect their spectacles within 20 minutes as the shops stock 2000 to 3000 types of lenses at any one time. Set prices of between $98 and $198 include both frames and lenses.