The sector is in turmoil: in 2015 there was growth of almost 5% compared to the previous year. Emerging online companies and low-cost firms have become the latest threat to traditional opticians.
When you go into an optician’s shop, the brands to choose from can seem endless. But behind them are a few giants that handle the main licenses in the world of fashion: the Italians Luxottica, Safilo, De Rigo and Marcolin, the American Marchon and, in Spain, Optim. Glasses are a booming business in our country: in 2015, in visual correction products alone, there was a growth of 4.7%, with a turnover of 1.6 billion euros. The data is not surprising because glasses have become an almost essential product, because they protect against UVA rays and because more than 25 million Spaniards need visual correction systems. However, the Spanish Federation of Optical Associations (FEDAO) Remember that since 2008, due to the crisis, there has been a 25% decrease in the frequency of visits to the optometrist.
This year is expected to be equally positive, although not as intense. The financial results for the first quarter of 2016 point to this trend. Luxottica, for example, has increased its sales by 2.5% to 2.26 billion. Another indicator of the enormous potential of the sector is found in the announcement made in September 2014 by the luxury giant Kering (formerly PPR), which brings together major brands such as Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent or Pumaamong many others. Kering decided to take back the reins of its optical business, which had been in the hands of the Safilo Group for 20 years, and take control of its entire value-added chain. The group’s companies had a turnover of around 350 million euros and its 11 companies active in the optical sector eyewear They reported royalties The Gucci licence, which was due to expire on 31 December 2016, two years before the expiry date, will require a €90 million settlement to begin a new four-year strategic partnership in 2017, during which Safilo will develop and produce the glasses, but under Kering’s control. The group’s estimates were positive, considering that the global eyewear market was not only significant, but that double-digit growth was expected for the premium segment.
New competitors
In Spain, the consultancy firm DBK estimates a 4.1% increase in business for 2016 compared to the previous year, reaching a turnover of 2.365 billion euros. Although FEDAO believes that the profit margin will be lower due to the increase in labour costs and the greater weight of turnover low cost within the sector, since the market for frames has been fragmented with the emergence of small companies and startupswhich offer highly personal products with a distinct style seal and at affordable prices. Among the most recent players is the firm Hawkersan unstoppable phenomenon that, after breaking sales records on Amazon, is considered the Zara of glasses. Its appeal has not gone unnoticed by Inditex, which has linked it to Pull&Bear to sell its models both in stores and online. This proliferation of firms downplays the impact of piracy, which is more damaging to large groups. According to a recent report by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), counterfeiting and piracy are worth 338 billion euros each year. In Spain, in 2015 alone, the Tax Agency seized almost 2.6 million counterfeit products, whose estimated market value would have reached 130 million euros. Glasses are the main seizures: 395,000 counterfeits (59 million) were removed from the market.
If for glasses manufacturers the great threat is piracy, for the national optical sector the great concern comes from the sales channel onlinewhere emerging firms such as the Madrid-based Lord Wilmore are gaining more and more prominence. It started its journey in January 2013 and almost quadrupled its sales in just one year. In 2015, it reached a turnover of 300,000 euros. The many companies that sell prescription glasses that have emerged on the Internet clash with the professional interests of the sector, but the legal intricacies can be circumvented in many ways. At opticadirecta.es, a company specialising in optical products aimed at consumers, they strive to make it clear that they do not offer optical services: “We do not grade, give optical advice or prescribe glasses. That is the responsibility of a registered optician or ophthalmologist,” and that their services are appropriate for ordering replacement glasses. Traditional opticians, for their part, remind us that the prescription of glasses involves certain elements that are not included in medical prescriptions, such as the distance to the vertex, facial angle and pantoscopic angle that the frame has in relation to the morphology of the user’s face. Inés Mateu, president of FEDAO, points out that “market techniques that only strive for low cost should not be used, without taking into account quality or safety. In our sector, Above billing or sales, there is health“.
At Visual Click, a pioneering company that was founded in 2007 in a garage in Seville and currently has a turnover of around six million euros, they combine physical optics with the platform onlinewhere repeat purchases are made, since when you have adapted some glasses, buying new ones is easier. “More than a threat, the commercialization online “It is a challenge that we must face, something that we must understand as complementary to our work,” says Luis Rozados, general manager of Federópticos. “The challenge is to know how to convey to the consumer the quality, innovation and services that we offer in traditional opticians.”
Among the most established trends in the sector is the provision of the product with connotations of social or environmental responsibility, either with the implementation of programs Donating glasses to disadvantaged communities or using sustainable materials (natural or recycled) in the making of the frames. Wooden glasses are the stars, both the handmade ones and those already available from the big brands. Another trend in vogue, very present at the last fair in Milan, is the commitment to flat lenses. Laura González, from La GaferÃa, points out that “they are fashionable for aesthetic reasons, but you have to be careful with them because they cause reflections that can damage the macula. It is advisable to buy them from opticians who make them correctly.”
We cannot fail to mention 3D printing, which has found one of its most commercial applications in the production of customizable frames that have given rise to a multitude of startupslike the Australian one Sneaking Duck or the Italian one Soda Concept. A trend that has been adopted by the most avant-garde firms, such as the German Mykita, which has already launched its first collection using 3-D printing, called Mylon. In Spain we find the example of Wlasses, which creates glasses with recycled material – nylon powder – using 3D printing, and which is the vision of two entrepreneurs who, with a capital of 10,000 euros, have conceived four designs for commercialization. “The 3D printing SLS [Sinterizado Láser Selectivo] “It is one of the most advanced techniques,” explains Alberto Hernández, its founder. “The laser 3D printer heats and fuses [sinteriza] “The powder particles of material are successively layered up, until a complete set of frames and temples is created.” What seems clear is that the sector is in turmoil.
- The maxim that “the past was better” may be an ever-present law in fashion, but what is indisputable is that in the world of eyewear it is still valid, with the continuous reissue of models from the past and a certain taste for the “retro” aesthetic present in any collection. Lovers of glasses with history are in luck with the proliferation of shops and websites that sell “vintage” glasses. It is no longer just stylists who are looking for genuine models for film productions, but the general public is looking for unique models and turns to specialists in discontinued glasses, such as Gafa Vintage or Miss Gafas.