Safilo commercial strategies
Exclusive interview with Henri Blomqvist, Chief Commercial Officer at the Group.Your 2020 plan includes a rebalancing of your licenses. How is the consumer perception of your housebrands improving?Today our business is represented 20% by our core brands and our strategy aims to achieve a more balanced percentage around 40/45% versus our licensed brands which, of course, continues to play a major role in Safilo.To fully leverage our core brands’ potential – as this is the key strategy towards long-term sustainable growth – we invested in brand building platforms. Carrera for example is being globally repositioned, a process which began last year with a re-stage plan. It’s not about changing the brand equity; it’s about how the equity manifests itself in a modern way and at the same time refreshing the collection and the design.However, we shouldn’t think that we have yet done everything to satisfy the consumers. Society is changing very rapidly; no industry can rest on its achievements of the past. In order to understand this change, new trends and the consumer segments we also make use of multiple market investigations, conduct our own consumer research and very specifically look at the development of trends. Which are you key markets?Our key markets – i.e. Italy, Iberia, North America, France, and the Global Accounts – registered broadbased growth last year. We project in the 2020 a like for like mid-single digit growth CAGR, thanks to new commercial opportunities in future core markets like Germany, UK, and Nordics, and winning multi-channel and multi-segment marketing strategies in our core markets like North America, Italy, and Iberia.Which is your placement on the new markets?Our key emerging markets – Brazil, Mexico and China – recorded strong growth driven by dedicated regional hubs in China, Asia Pacific, Latin America and IMEA. Progresses in those markets are enabled by an efficient diversification of our multi-segment portfolio across geographies, backed up at the same time by enlarged distribution in white spaces.What does MIDO represent for your Group?MIDO is indeed the most important international trade show for eyewear, and an key event in our calendar every year that cannot be missed. Safilo has been attending this show since the very beginning, and this year states its presence with an 800 square meters booth in the Fashion District pavilion.What are you going to present and which will be the novelties?In addition to presenting the new eyewear collections, every year we make adjustments to our booth, some of them minor but others more substantial and highly visible. Of course, our goal is to respond to market changes and meet visitors’ expectations.The latest innovations in materials can be tested at first hand and details of new collections, such as Carrera’s Maverick collection – which recently saw the start of a campaign features Academy Award winning actor Jared Leto – made from laser cut stainless steel, complemented with a matt finishing.In addition, Optyl – which is a trademark registered by Safilo – will face a new era being the new trend for this season. It is a plastic material with exceptional qualities, extremely comfortable and durable, offering an excellent finish and ensuring outstanding colours, allowing for more creativity and mixing with many other materials to ensuring amazing three-dimensional final effects.Our collections for the next months will increasingly focus on innovation: the most interesting eyewear offer features innovative contents, such as interchangeable elements for maximum versatility, innovative technologies mixing different materials, and the most innovative solutions offering maximum lightness and utmost comfort, such as the use of titanium or carbon fibre.At the same time, hand-made and artisanal processes are key in the development of our eyewear collections, highlighting a growing focus on sartorial craftsmanship and savoir-faire in every detail: the new sunglasses and optical frames are the result of skilful working techniques, as a unique combination of impeccable craftsmanship and unparalleled expertise ensuring perfection in any detail.
