Barberini bets on eyewear too
In less than a year, the company known for the production of glass lenses, has launched its first eyewear collection. We talked about it with CEO Gianni Vetrini.You were the optical glass pioneers, why did you decide to create a line of eyewear?Barberini has chosen optical glass ever since it began to manufacture sun lenses. We have upheld this initial choice over dozens of years to the present day. There have been many projects and some of them led to patents. We have developed polarized lenses, our top product, together with the in-house design and construction of the machinery required to make them.In addition to polarized lenses we also make photochromic lenses with the Hydrogen Firing technique, innovative coatings and lenses in special glass.An important turning point came when we acquired Schott’s optical division and combined a very long history as a glass foundry with all this company’s experience and research. Another development was the acquisition of the Korean company Triapex for manufacturing polarized film. In other words, the gradual progress in lens making cannot always be transferred to our industrial customers who, naturally, pursue their own development and commercial logic. So we thought that we were ready with all our developments to enter the market and tell consumers about eyewear that isn’t always on the market or is not properly described.Naturally, we try not to be competitive based on price and all the lenses in the Barberini eyewear collections are available for our customers: there are no exclusives.In what way are they different and innovative compared to other brands on the market?First and foremost, the lenses are real glass! We’ve called the collection Platinum Glass as a reminder that optical glass is made in special furnaces where large quantities of platinum are in close contact with the glass to purify it. This is why it is called “optical”. It’s the same glass that is used for making optical instruments (telescopes, cameras, microscopes, etc.). All our lenses are made by gluing together two different lenses. A polarized film can be inserted in the middle but they can also be simply glued together to utilize the characteristics of both pieces of glass.In short, an array of characteristics that in the history of glass sun lens manufacturing have never been added together before.We have also paid a lot of attention to design: the frames have been created by a designer who put major emphasis on the lenses in a style that is tasteful and never extreme.What did the market think of this new product and what are your reference markets?Our company has a long history of making quality glass lenses and we are known for that above all, at least as far as eye care professionals are concerned. There have been requests for direct supplies for many years but we have never succumbed to this temptation. So when we announced that in the end we were oriented toward the direct production of a collection of eyewear, there was a certain amount of satisfaction among sector operators.At last eyewear that focuses totally on lenses, obviously without neglecting aesthetics and comfort. We have only just started selling our products and naturally they will be on the test bench of a demanding Italian market, but we have already laid the bases for sales inside and outside Europe. Not yet in the USA; we’ll go there when the company is better consolidated.How is the lens business doing?Very well. At last our lenses with rare earths are mature, fully understood by our customers and many prestigious firms have made them their top product. We mustn’t forget polarized lenses, where for many years we have represented the state-of-the-art in the sector. We’ve reached a level of sophistication that allows us to make polarized lenses 1.5-1.6 mm thick and lenses with calottes of only 0.3 mm!
