Nestled within a residential street of the suburbs of Aarhus, Denmark, is the unassuming headquarters of eyewear design behemoth, Lindberg.
The roots of the company go back to Lindberg Optik, a practice in the centre of Aarhus established by Poul-Jørn Lindberg and his wife, Hanne, in 1969.
Lindberg’s deteriorating sight over the course of the following decade meant he needed glasses, but nothing in the shop was to his taste – they were either too heavy or too cumbersome. His solution was to create ultra-light glasses and in 1983 enlisted the help of Hans Dissing, from architectural firm Dissing & Weitling.
One single piece of titanium wire was the catalyst for Lindberg and Dissing. After two years of painstaking research, development of special tooling and cast off material, the result was the Air titanium rimless frame, launched in 1985 and lauded for years to come. Shortly after the release, HM Queen Margrethe II and HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark both took delivery of Air rimless frames. Some 25 years later, the company was issued with a royal warrant.
‘At the time, nobody in the eyewear market was using titanium wire,’ says Morten Zacho, one of Lindberg’s in house optometrists and the guide for the tour around the production facility.
He continues: ‘Sure, some companies were using the material, but not like this. Titanium frames used to break a lot when they first came to market. This was because the material could become brittle when heated. The beauty of Air frames was the one-piece design with no soldering.’
However, there were many challenges. There was no reliable tooling for eyewear at the time, so getting the spiral hinges at the correct tension and at the same angles was incredibly difficult. ‘But we like to challenge ourselves and ask “why not?”’ says Zacho. A trip to an equipment fair provided the answer to tooling issues, when the company repurposed a machine that made springs for beds.
In 1984, Lindberg Optic Design was established, by Lindberg and his son Herik. One year later, Air titanium was its centrepiece. Its manufacturing base was as subtle as the glasses, a small flat above the Lindberg Optik practice. The company’s current CEO and owner, Henrik Lindberg, has become the global figurehead for the company.
In 2017, the company offers 13 collections, including full titanium, acetate combinations, polymers, buffalo horn and solid gold, with an almost incomprehensible number of SKUs. For its innovative products, it has been awarded no less than 87 design awards.
The working environment at the company is very much open plan, which creates a synergy between the different facets of the business. ‘We don’t look at the company as having different departments, we look at it as one entity,’ says Zacho.
The openness created by this approach stands the company in good stead, because it works to a ‘just in time’ production principle, which Zacho compares to working like a chef where timing is everything.
‘Our goal isn’t to be too lean,’ admits sales and marketing director Peter Warrer. ‘But if you look at where we were 10 or even five years ago, we have streamlined well, but Henrik doesn’t like too much rigidity, because he feels it doesn’t suit the creative process.’
One of the ways the company has improved the way it works has been to encourage employees to constantly reassess the way they work, asking themselves periodically, ‘this is how I have always carried out this task, but is there a different and better way in which I can work?’
Danish ingenuity
The minimalist aesthetic Lindberg is now synonymous with is the result of 30 years of dedication to manufacturing innovation. Making glasses that remove all but the essential parts requires great skill, patience and ingenuity.
‘Above fashion, trends and Danish design, Henrik’s ethos has always been about creating a comfortable frame for the patient,’ says Warrer. ‘If Henrik could have made today’s interview, he would have told you that Lindberg is only half of the equation. The other half is our partner opticians, who have the technical knowledge of our frames to create the best experience for the patients. Lindberg is very much in co-operation with them.’
It is no surprise the company feels a certain kinship with the designers and architecture Denmark is famed for. ‘The whole Danish modernistic design wave that started in the 1950s and 60s has been a massive influence on the company – the work of designers like Arne Jacobsen and Poul Kjærholm, for example. This influence shows itself in minimalism, respect for the materials, it’s honesty in the use of the materials and ingenious, simple solutions,’ says Warrer.
‘To make a screw-less hinge made from a spiral of titanium wire, he had to let the material dictate the design somewhat,’ he adds. ‘The rule of engineering says that you cannot turn a wire around itself to the point where the diameter of the inside of the coil is smaller than the diameter of the wire,’ says Warrer. ‘But we did it – like the bumblebee that shouldn’t be able to fly.’
Getting the most from a piece of titanium is a complex job that has taken a lot of trial and error over the years, with the full nuances of the material making
themselves known only in the prototyping stages. The rate at which tension is removed from the wire must also be perfectly judged. Even when this early part of the process is completed, the speed at which the wire is bent remains imperative because bending at the wrong speed has a detrimental effect to the integrity of the metal.
Maybe working with sheet titanium is a little less of a challenge? It could be, but as Warrer explains, there are many factors to consider. ‘Working with titanium plates is a bit like going to a butcher and selecting the best cut of meat,’ he says. ‘We work closely with metal suppliers and from experience, we know the exact part of the plate that has the properties to meet our requirements – surfaces must be of an exact type for our colouration process.’
The process of research is helped by the company’s in-house bespoke production. Lots of machinery is purchased from external suppliers, but it would be a challenge to find a machine that has not been repurposed or completely reconfigured. It is here that the company says it scores significant advantages over its competitors who are reliant on suppliers for their research. Lindberg has the ability to make its own mistakes on the way to finding the perfect solution, meaning less cost and faster development time. ‘We’re incredibly dynamic and committed to development. If there’s a problem with production, we can fix it immediately and we constantly develop frame design. The design of the Air frame is nearly 30 years old, but we are constantly looking at how we can improve it,’ says Warrer.
Lindberg has never been about logos or changing its principles to meet trends. It sets its own trends. Warrer admits that in recent years, the company has become more fashion forward with some of its collections – the brightly coloured n.o.w (No wire) range, for example, features oversized translucent polymers that contrast with tinted sun lenses. However, the company has never lost focus of its overarching mantra, as these excursions are extensions of existing collections, featuring the same components and product, just with the volume turned up a little.
Challenges
‘Growth is not a measure for us. There has to be a certain amount to ensure stability, but it is not the primary driver,’ says Warrer. ‘There are not outside investors and the company has been self-financing for well over 20 years,’ he adds. In fact, the only board in place are a handful of Lindberg family members.
The company is in the middle of reducing the number of opticians it works with, a ‘transformation,’ as Warrer describes it. While this may seem counterproductive, the company wants to work more closely with the practices that make the cut, working with in-shop visual merchandising solutions and extended frame portfolios.
Henrik Lindberg’s ‘office’
‘When an optician is passionate about Lindberg, their business increases,’ says Warrer. ‘We make products with technical elements that opticians love, and we love seeing their reactions at the trade shows. We enjoy the fairs around the world because we know that the products we show will excite our customers. It’s a community of optical nerds, that has great business relationships.’
Day to day challenges are plentiful. But that is a good thing, says Warrer. For a number for years, Lindberg has had to deal with other companies, primarily in the Far East, copying its work. The expression ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ does not ring true with Lindberg, which has taken a hard stance on the imitators. ‘Wherever they are, we’ll go after them,’ he says.
‘They are sent a letter from our lawyer, who has practised copyright infringement for two decades. He has travelled all around the world defending our infringement cases – America, Mexico, Italy, China and Korea, etc. We now have teams of lawyers in these countries, it’s almost like a police force.
‘At this year’s Mido, we found an exhibitor that was showing Strip copies, but very badly made copies. We confiscated them at the show, because people like to talk at trade shows and strong action like this sends a strong message.
‘Even when companies tiptoe around design elements, we begin legal proceedings. We might not win, but we will grind them down, sometimes until they cannot afford to carry on fighting.’
Warrer, who joined the company in 1989, appreciates that this can sound like a cynical way of dealing with these issues, but he is at pains to point out that the company has to protect not just the company’s employees around the world, but a 30-year legacy that Lindberg has created.
But it is not just counterfeiting that the company has to fight, it also has to deal with parallel importing, where an optician will sell a batch of old stock frames to importers through unofficial channels. The buyer will then ask the optician to place an order with Lindberg for 40 or 50 brand new frames, which will then make their way into grey retail and sometimes, back in the hands of the counterfeiters, who have more time to study the design of each frame.
The copying challenge is significant, but alongside the legal action, Warrer says there are additional holistic ways Lindberg can meet the challenge head on. ‘Constant innovation in design, materials and production puts us ahead of the rest, making it much harder for the copiers to succeed. ‘Working with titanium is a particular challenge for us. It’s one also experienced by many other companies, but for them, it’s a much bigger challenge. We have over 30 years of experience working with the material and during that time, have established the best suppliers and developed the best techniques to work with it.
‘At the same time, Lindberg has exceptionally strong and distinctive branding and marketing. This makes us different from the rest. If you’re at the forefront of product and marketing, this is the best protection you can get.
‘When our customers see this, they know that we are fighting for them and protecting their businesses.’
The grapevine
Just before Optician’s trip to Aarhus, an interview with Safilo CEO Luisa Delgado published by Reuters suggested that Safilo would do well to acquire one or more established eyewear brands. Among the potential suitors suggested by the analyst was Lindberg. The company has long been the subject of similar speculation, which is met with the same strong rebuttals – occasionally to Optician.
But does this long-term speculation bother the company? ‘If one company wants to acquire another company, there are several ways it can go about it,’ says Warrer. ‘It can spread rumours, that they are considering buying us or even that they have bought us already. One large Italian company instructed its sales force to tell their customers, who are sometimes our customers too, that it had done just that.’
‘What I can say is that there have been no discussions with anyone about selling the company and the Lindberg family have no plans to in the future. There is nothing in this story.’
It is clear that the company is taking the rumour mill in its stride and can now focus on what it does best; innovation in every aspect of its business.