Nxt continues to amaze

After the success of last year's presentations at the Milan and Paris fairs, yesterday morning in Milan Intercast Europe presented to the national press (as well as to the Italian and European trade press) Nxt, the patented polymer for which it holds the exclusive world rights and which has already had a positive response from the market.

Set up in the second half of the 1990s by Intercast in collaboration with Simula Technologies and introduced experimentally to the market at the end of 2001, Nxt quadrupled its billings in 2003, grew by two and a half times in 2004, and today represents 20% of Intercast's turnover .

The presentation yesterday is part of a communication strategy aimed at raising operator and consumer awareness about Nxt's exceptional properties and at promoting its recognition. 'In a market where fashion shows an ever-increasing interest in the world of eyewear and innovation', Paolo Baiocchi, Chairman of Intercast said, 'there is a requirement to diversify the stylistic message and focus on a combination of design, technology, quality, performance, reliability and attention to detail. A goal made possible by Nxt, a material that allows the production of fashion and sport sunglasses without restrictions regarding shape, with a workability unknown to date, and with characteristics of reliability and durability consistent with the expectation of consumers who buy branded products and prestigious labels'.

In fact many companies have already chosen Nxt for their eyewear collections, and have therefore joined the Nxt Club: 4B&Q, Allison, Arlecchino, Aspex Eyewear, De Rigo Vision, Eye DC, Julbo, Safilo, Visibilia and Zero Industry, just to mention few. As regards Eye DC, for example, Nxt has made it possible to make the glasses which received a design award in 2001, but production had to be put on hold because there was no material suitable for the model's special characteristics.

The extraordinary features of Nxt have also been the subject of a study by the Research Center at the European Design Institute, which in successive steps analyzed its properties to design prototypes which were presented at Mido 2003 (Air, Dot and Spider) and Mido 2004 (Mantide and Helsinki). 'Aurora', specific glasses for sport, which will be presented at Mido 2005, is currently being studied.

The potential of Nxt is such as to forecast that in 2007 it could represent 60% of Intercast's billings.