Mind the gap

‘We don’t copy what someone else does but fill holes,’ says Christian Hoeferl, head of sales at the Michael Pachleitner Group (MPG) which is currently building up a field sales force ready to knock on the doors of optical practices up and down the land.

In an age where frame companies are formed on a daily basis, he is keen to get across the scale and heritage of the Austrian MPG. The firm celebrates its 60th birthday this year and since the mid-1980s has been in the hands of its eponymous owner. That takeover marked an international push that has seen the firm sell to 74 countries around the world and grow to a business employing 1,000 people and turning over £120m. MPG is also a true eyewear business with half of its turnover in lenses but for now MPG is just targeting the UK with frames.

Christian Hoeferl

The man tasked with the job of building the team to do that is UK country manager Andrew Davies. He aims to grow a network of between six and eight people who ‘have the relationships’ to get around half of MPG’s dozen brands onto the nation’s frame racks. He is setting a target of between 150 and 300 doors per area, so his goals are far from modest.

MPG’s product offering to the market is diverse. It prides itself on strong house brands with a sprinkling of licences, most notably Red Bull. It is also strong in the private label business and sells through pharmacies with its ready reader collections. In the UK MPG is launching Daniel Hechter Eyewear, Ruud van Dyke, Kiotonakamura, Red Bull Spect Eyewear and Vienna design.

Daniel Hechter is associated with the French movement of affordable fashion and is synonymous with prêt-à-porter, says Davies. The range represents a quality design-led frame at a great price point for men and women, he adds. Kiotonakamura is a colourful, quirky and fun collection which, as its name suggests, draws on influences from Japan. Classic looks for the mature wearer has been the reserve Belgian brand Ruud van Dyke since 1990, but Davies says that age range is reducing with its minimalist metal and detailed designs. Red Bull Spect offers a very familiar name, where MPG partners with the Red Bull brand for a sunwear and goggle collection aimed at thrill seekers wanting a cool look.

Andrew Davies

Quality, price and service are the selling points MPG references, not a dissimilar story to many other frame vendors but it says it delivers because of Austria’s eyewear heritage and the forward-looking, design-led approach of MPG. In its home town of Graz its futuristic headquarters, the Black Panther, is a local landmark. That futuristic feel is the signature of the company, says Hoeferl. The Black Panther building, among other things, plays home to a team of 20 designers and customers are encouraged to visit to see the 10,000s of SKUs on offer or sit down with the designers to create products from scratch.

Davies says MPG wants to appeal to the business brains of buyers as well as their fashion sense and stresses that the quality of the firm’s design spreads out to its marketing. He says MPG provides comprehensive point of sale materials and hold twice yearly photoshoots to keep the look fresh.

‘We give a complete solution for opticians, it’s much more than selling frames, we are very marketing orientated,’ says Hoeferl. ‘Our brands are designed to fill holes that are rarely served. We’ve been doing that for 20 years and we’ve done a pretty good job.’