Bringing down the average age of rimless spectacle wearers in the UK to expand the market is one of the key aims of the new Silhouette UK managing director Chris Cox.
In addition to launching the new premium Crystals collection, a replacement for Daniel Swarovski eyewear, Cox said that Silhouette had expanded its offering to include a range aimed at wearers aged 25 and over. Entitled SPX Art, the collection retails for around £190-£200, is constructed from a combination of SPX plastic and titanium and features trendier lens shapes and brighter colours than other Silhouette ranges.
Cox said the rimless market accounted for 3 per cent of overall spectacle sales in the UK in 2009, information he'd obtained from research company Strategy with Vision (SWV).
Cox countered what SWV described as consumer concerns about the durability of rimless eyewear by violently flinging his own glasses over his shoulder. He stated that with screw-less technology there was no problem with the durability of Silhouette product, a fact emphasised by a three-year guarantee on frames and parts.
He conceded that rimless eyewear, like most frame styles, went through trends, but he felt expansion was still possible. 'Patients are prepared to wear rimless if practices are prepared to offer it.' He added that in some practices rimless eyewear represented between 20 and 40 per cent of sales.
A former sales and marketing manager for Silhouette UK as well as a former sales director for Hoya UK, Cox was most recently working as a non-qualified dispensing optician in his own practices.
He said he had experience of both sides of the relationship between practitioners and manufacturers, and he hoped to strengthen the partnership between Silhouette and the 1,000 or so practices in which its products were stocked.
He felt that practitioners and manufacturers should be working closer on issues such as staff training. 'Manufacturers have a lot to offer, but they often don't communicate that to their customers or they wait for them to ask,' he said.
Cox added that Silhouette had extended its licensing agreement with Adidas and would be promoting the brand even further in 2011. He hoped this could be achieved by taking practitioners to sports events to perform eye examinations and sell Adidas eyewear.
