Henri Blomqvist.
NEW YORK—Safilo Group has been on a steady, determined path to transform its organization, brand portfolio and services for the demands of the 21st century. The company’s focus on the North American market, the largest business segment for this international player, remains paramount, as evidenced a few months ago by the naming of a new CEO for North America, Henri Blomqvist, effective Aug. 1.

Blomqvist also has responsibility for Safilo’s global sports commercial channel and is a member of the Safilo Group executive committee, the first time the company has chosen to have someone on that committee based in the U.S. Blomqvist had been chief commercial officer of Safilo Group for the prior three years.

Prior to joining Safilo, the Finnish executive worked for 10 years at Procter & Gamble, gaining experience in sales and commercial management on several worldwide brands. He held local and international roles covering the Nordic region, parts of Western Europe, Russia, Turkey, the Middle East, South Africa, Korea and Australia.

As the world’s second largest eyewear manufacturer, the Safilo Group is arguably one of the world’s oldest producers, with a rich history dating back to factory origins in 1878 in Calalzo di Cadore, which was then then merged into Safilo in 1934.

For the past several years, however, Safilo Group is in the midst of busily reshaping itself into a modern company, reconfiguring and revamping its manufacturing centers and product design teams, reorganizing distribution with investment in a worldwide platform (SAP) to give the company and its customers better data, custom-service models and improved supply-chain capabilities.

Blomqvist is working with Group CEO Luisa Delgado and the board, with a focus on becoming the “partner of trust” for both large and small retail/ECP accounts. He is also building out the execution of a uniquely balanced brand portfolio in the eyewear and sunwear arena to serve increasingly diverse consumer and lifestyle interests and solidify Safilo’s role as “leading eyewear creator” in the category.

Blomqvist emphasized to VM, “We are not a ‘fashion’ company, but we are an ‘eyewear’ company that is involved in creating the quality throughout the scope of the market.”

Safilo has examined several tiers for this portfolio, which consists a mix of their own and proprietary brands with licensed brands. These range from sport and outdoor brands like Smith and Polaroid others like Carrera and Safilo. Both Polaroid and Carrera will see major expansions in the coming year.

“Mass cool” brands like Swatch and Havaianas are also part of the total mix. Contemporary and lifestyle brands include Kate Spade, Marc Jacobs, Bobbi Brown, Tommy Hilfiger Jimmy Choo, while fashion luxury consists of labels such as Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Max Mara and Celine. Soon, a new Atelier Division will feature the launch of Elie Saab.

As VM has previously reported, Safilo will end its sales role with the Gucci brand, after Dec. 31of this year (as Kering Eyewear takes over its own development and distribution of that brand worldwide, even as Safilo continues to be a producer of that product). However, it’s the diversity and balance of the current and future Safilo portfolio, which offers several choices and structures to Safilo N.A.’s current customers that are already propelling sales for 2017.

Vision Monday’s Marge Axelrad talked with Blomqvist to learn some more specifics.

Safilo’s eyewear includes such prestige fashion and luxury labels as Dior and Fendi but, increasingly, broader platforms for Safilo’s proprietary brands like Carrera and Smith, which span the sport arena and, recently, optical frames.
Vision Monday: Let’s discuss Safilo’s view toward brands in the eyewear market today.

Henri Blomqvist: A huge competitive platform for Safilo has been its compelling portfolio. And when we talk about that, we always start from the shopper’s/consumer’s perception. Even though we are continuing to invest heavily in our own brands like Carrera, Polaroid, Smith and Safilo and manage the balance of our licensed brands, we are after a mix that takes into account different types of customer needs for sun and optical and, of course, price and positioning—for our accounts and customers.

VM: Tell us about Polaroid, which you have just started to build here in the U.S. after expansion in other parts of the world.

Blomqvist: Polaroid, now the fastest-growing eyewear brand in Europe and also doing extremely well in South America, is what we consider a mega brand. We have a very simple strategy for Polaroid. Target group: everybody. Distribution strategy: everybody. Simply put, it’s second only to Ray-Ban in top of mind brand awareness.

It’s about the original polarized lens, it represents product quality at a price, it’s got an authentic message that’s powerful in the minds of young consumers and it generates confidence in older customers. It’s also one of the key brands we offer that has a real impulse purchase element to it. It has a proven track record of incremental sales. We have started a massive outdoor marketing campaign for Polaroid in Europe and we will be bringing that here. Polaroid is a huge opportunity for us and for our customers.

VM: You just started to show Swatch, which is a new eyewear concept. And, what’s the timeable for Havaianas, both in the “mass cool” sector?

Blomqvist: We like this segment and will be introducing more brands here. As a company, this is a new idea, as we’ve historically focused on European fashion labels, but we believe in this fun, accessibly priced category. Havaianas launched this past August in Brazil and worldwide we will be rolling this out next year.

VM: And the very high end of the market? What’s the role of super luxury today?

Blomqvist: Well, obviously, for brands like Dior or Celine and others we have a very different strategy, which are more targeted. And next year, being previewed this year for a January launch, we will be featuring a new Atelier initiative, the collection of Elie Saab, a unique designer who originates from the Middle East. We will be very limited with this collection. Over time, we might bring some special pieces from our other prestige luxury brands, into Atelier.

Safilo Kids is a unique Safilo brand project developed with input from MDs and ODs.
The accessible Polaroid collection is a “major” opportunity, says Blomqvist, who adds, “Target distribution: everybody.”
VM: How is this diverse portfolio mix reflected in the way Safilo is looking at its design and manufacturing today?

Blomqvist: We have done a lot of important work in rethinking our global design studio network. We used to do design only out of Italy and then adapt. Today, we have design centers and teams in Italy and Milan and New York and Portland, Ore. We want to observe local trends and needs.

And this is reflected now in what we hear from our accounts. For Celine, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Max Mara, Hugo Boss and others we are experiencing tremendous growth rates in the past two and half years because of this. People tell us they no longer need to see a logo/name plate on the frames, they ‘know’ the brand from the product itself. That’s the visible impact of creation work and a real achievement today.

Smith, actually, is another example of this from that brand’s perspective. Smith is an American icon brand and was kept ‘separate’ within Safilo for many years. But today, our Portland-based Smith group is the market leader in snow goggles and snow helmets on North America. The brand has incredible strength in the mind of the consumer. We’re now rolling out Smith eyewear in North America and globally targeting the snow markets. ‘From the mountains to the streets’ is our new perspective for this important brand.

And, we can remember that Carrera is part of the Portland center in the sun and performance arena. The market will also soon see more of an optical component in Carrera, with a design sensibility coming out of our Padova, Italy center.

VM: How does that balance out your own brands versus outside brands, in light of your strategy for the next several years?

Blomqvist: Well, we are in the midst of a huge commitment and investment in this arena. Historically, Safilo manufactured in-house about 30 percent of its volume. We want that number to increase significantly. And just a few months ago we announced a significant €60 million investment in further developing the company’s in-house capabilities, which is tied directly into supply chain priorities.

VM: What does that mean for Safilo’s U.S. market strengths? And, how might that be impacted by the Gucci transition?

Blomqvist: The biggest strength Safilo has is the reach of our distribution. We are talking globally about some 100,000 points of sale in 130 countries. In the U.S., we are talking about nearly 20,000 points of sale among independent, 3 Os. This is a sector that is clearly part of our history and will continue to be our high priority. Yes, we will amp up the support of larger customers, too, but the 3 Os are critical.

As we transition, we are selling the Gucci collection we showed in August until Dec. 31 and will continue to ship our customers that product until about 2:00 p.m. that day. And we will support that product that we have sold. After that, there may be a new collection and it’s up to Kering to describe their new distribution approach.

But we are already working with customers, strategically, and analyzing their business to make a go-forward brand transition that makes sense to them based on their customers. Brands like Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, Jimmy Cho and Max Mara might work to address the same customer; others have a slightly higher-end mix of them who could consider brands like Fendi, Celine, Givenchy and Boss to be critical to address their base.

Our aim is not to create another so-called ‘mega brand’ in the future but to grow specific brands in a more targeted way. This makes sense in today’s market for today’s consumers. We have done a lot of work on the segmentation and we are focused on sell-through, not about just selling in, but helping our accounts sell out.

Our overall mission, in the U.S. particularly, is to take our customer partnerships to the next level. Our presence with alliances are another way that we can help our independent accounts but we believe we have the brand choices and the support and solutions today. Safilo will be the leader in this change.