Brand management, eyewear licensing and house labels have become hotly discussed topics. Marcolin is one eyewear supplier that, it could be argued, has a foot in every camp.
Marcolin sold 14m frames in 2016 across brands including Tom Ford, Moncler, Ermenegildo Zegna, Roberto Cavalli, Atelier Swarovski, Tod’s, Emilio Pucci, Balenciaga, Swarovski, Dsquared2, Guess, Diesel, Just Cavalli, Covergirl, Kenneth Cole, Montblanc, Timberland, Gant, Harley-Davidson, Marciano, Catherine Deneuve, Skechers, Candie’s, Rampage, Viva, Marcolin and Web. Amazingly, it is still number three in the frame business but has ambitions.
At Mido in Milan recently Marcolin was being careful to draw a line between it and Thelios, the joint venture it formed last year with brand owner LMVH which has just launched its first collection Celine. Marcolin stresses it and Thelios are two totally separate entities.
Antonio Jové, head of Europe Middle East and Africa for Marcolin says the balance between licensed brands and house brands for Marcolin is clear.
‘First of all what I want to say is that the main part of our business is licensed brands and we work very hard to fix our licences for a long period.’ He cites the example of Marcolin’s most important brand in the luxury division, Tom Ford, which has been secured until 2029. Also last year its most important diffusion brand, Guess, was signed until the end of 2025.
‘When we did that we tried very hard to work with the licences that we had, it’s true that we have our own brand called Web and we are working year by year to be better and stronger. We have distribution today throughout the whole of Europe and most of the important countries in the world, we are growing very well with those brands.’
He says Marcolin is working very hard with Web and it is a growing brand – up 34% in 2017 and that is in the difficult EMEA market. ‘We need to know today that this industry is hard. In EMEA the KPI of growth in 2017 is zero to plus 1%. Marcolin is growing by 14%.’
He says the business is divided into owned units and distributors. In its owned branches it is growing by 12%. He said big changes had taken place in these businesses including a new managing director in James Gotch for the UK and Nordic region.
‘The other part of the business is the distributors and we know with our competitors the distributors are suffering today but we know with our distributors that we grew nearly 16%.’ We are working to open new branches and we are focusing to grow this year at a similar level to the growth of last year.
Within that there is also a balancing act to perform between the diffusion and luxury brands, independents and key accounts and sun and ophthalmic product mix.
On the final topic Jové is very upbeat about the split of sunwear and its direction. ‘In our company we have 50/50 today. Our business in sun is more about quality including special lenses polarised lenses and we are growing the average price in sun.’ He says Marcolin is also working hard to introduce its brands into key accounts across the EMEA area and to intelligently segment the wide portfolio of brands it carries. This he says will help Marcolin grow the ophthalmic business.
Finding the right doors, in the right places for the right brands remains the task and Jové is keen to point out that this requires a number of strategies. ‘We have a big portfolio of brands with the product mix to supply to the whole business. We have strong distribution and with our strong diffusion product that gives the key accounts the possibility to work with our product. Good product, good mix and a very good average prices. We are also working very hard to provide our customers with a very good supply chain.’ That will vary between different retailers.
This means having the right management system for the customers that ask for this level of service, mainly the key accounts. ‘Also for the independents we have a lot of brands to offer the possibility to have special product, exclusive product, celebrity product. This company has a very strong knowledge.’
As an example, key account diffusion businesses may prefer Guess, Diesel Gant or Timberland while luxury retailers may be keener to acquire Tom Ford, Moncler, Ermenegildo Zegna or Roberto Cavalli.
James Gotch
Alongside the brands is the issue of volume and retailer numbers. ‘If we’re talking about the diffusion brands then we are working to increase our doors, but always quality doors. In the luxury Tom Ford we are working on the distribution. This may mean changing but not necessarily increasing the number [of doors]. For the other brands we are working to open the quality doors that we need to reach our goals.’
Jové is keeping tight-lipped on additions to the portfolio but is open that work on Marcolin is in progress. ‘Our main issue was to fix our brands: we did. Our second topic is to introduce our second line brands. Of course we are here to grow, we want to be the number two of this industry and if we have the chance to find the right brand then we are open.
Where that may be is hard to say. ‘Men’s or women’s, rimless? We know that the women’s segment is strong but is perhaps the more covered segment but we are open to discussions and if we find the right one [brand] we can go ahead with them.’
When asked about product trends Gotch is first keen to stress that the EMEA strategy is enacted in the UK. ‘From a UK point of view I think we have a great opportunity, Antonio talked about a big portfolio of brands and we haven’t been very proactive in making our customers aware of, and helping them understanding, the whole portfolio. My first mission is to put more of the right products and the right brands in front of the right customers, to be visible, to be clear about where we add value and where we can help customers to grow their business. I think we have got a unique point of view and value proposition.
‘In terms of product trends a couple of things we are seeing in the UK market – one is a shift towards metal, one is a shift towards smaller ladies eyesizes. Those are the changes we are seeing locally in the market and we are very well placed in terms of our portfolio of brands and the portfolio of products within each brand.
‘Our customers are very complimentary about our sales team, they are usually complimentary and strongly focused on one of our brands.’ But, he adds generally unaware of who Marcolin is as an organisation and our wider portfolio of products. ‘This is a year when we are going to be very visible in the market, talking to our customers about who we are and what we do, where we can bring a value.’
In the light of the changing structure of the market with mega-mergers such as the Luxottica Essilor move he agrees with Jové. ‘We have a very unique perspective and we can help our customer navigate through that.’
That could be about service and being flexible, but he says: ‘There’s a structural change happing in our industry, Marcolin has a unique perspective. It’s very easy to look at the big players as some way all similar but Marcolin is unique. We are directly affiliated to the biggest luxury player in the world and at the same time we have a very strong heritage and expertise in the eyewear business and we are here to help our customer navigate through that.’
In UK terms that will mean activity with the retail optical business to get those messages across. ‘Being present and visible, raising awareness about who we are, professionalising our approach, being very clear with our customers about what we can do and how we can do it, be out in the market and talking to people and listening to their needs and how we address them. The operative word we would use is partnerships. And as Antonio mentioned there are a great number of brands that we still feel we have opportunities for if we can raise awareness.’
Jové says Marcolin wants to impress on its customers that it is strong that it has a strong knowledge, the products and it is a company with energy.
Gotch says making practices understand that Marcolin wants to be their partner is key. ‘Marcolin has all the stature and the advantages of a big company but the spirt of an entrepreneurial company, it’s a people company, it’s a nice company. It’s an approachable company.’
