India is high on the list for most international eyewear companies. With a plan to have a presence across all segments and be competitively priced in India, Luisa Delgado, CEO, Safilo Group spoke to BW Businessworld on her recent visit to India.
On one side, Delgado aims at bringing brands like Dior and Eli Saab to the country and on the other hand, wants to make the eyewear more affordable for the consumers as well.
Being in the Group for more than 4 years now, Delgado started as a non-executive, climbing her way up as the CEO of world's second largest eyewear company.
Hailing from the consumer goods and IT background, she always had a special thrust for art and craftsmanship. Today, her portfolio of brands include Carrera, Polaroid, Smith, Safilo and Oxydo and the licensed collections of Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Banana Republic, Bobbi Brown and Boss.
India is very important for us, says Delgado. "It's my second visit to the country and our India business has witnessed a double digit growth. Apart from renewing our current licenses of the brands like Jimmy Choo, Max Mara, we intend to bring all our 30 brands to India by 2022", she said.
Delgado says that the company is pleased with the retailers of the country but the overall channel is not very well developed.
"The only problem is that the channels of retail are not very well developed in the continent. For a continent like this, you would expect a much bigger retailer network," Delgado said.
Apart from Dior, Safilo plans to bring Eli Saab eyewear to India in very selective doors.
"This is important for not volumes and sales, but image and Brand perspective. The idea is to establish a new brand in eyewear that is the highest in desirability", Delgado said.
The company would focus on growing awareness of its brands, such as Polaroid and Carrera and plans to target the millennials with the mass-cool brand Havaianas.
"It's the flip flop, mass cool brand, a segment that is growing very fast in the eyewear industry. Price is lower and volumes are higher and distribution is very wide", Delgado said.
Asked whether the group plans to set up a plant in India, she said: "No. Yet, it is of course always possible when a business really takes off in a country and there would be one or the other very special unique items. At this point in time, our existing supply network is what we need, and we are investing in it to modernize. If ever we do manufacture in India one day, it would not be just for India. Our goal is based on segments and quality that is worldwide consistent. We never compromise with that."
Despite no direct engagement with the customer, Delgado says the company deals with the specific dynamics of every single segment, daily with customer feedback.
"It would be accurate to say that we don't have direct engagement with the customer. We do not sell it to them directly. But of course we take feedback from them. We need to keep fingers on the pulse of the ongoing trends and we engage with the customers socially, digitally etc. So you can be a wholesaler, yet be in a constant touch with the customers," she said.
There lies a huge potential for growth as Indian customers move towards the branded eyewear. Branded eyewear in both prescriptions and sunglasses segment is largely underdeveloped in developing countries. Delgado aims to democratise eyewear in markets like India, Brazil, and Turkey in a way that it becomes affordable and hopes to see a pair of Safilo group glasses in every Indian household in future.
"We have done very well in the past 6 months and will do much better in the coming years. We are not here to squeeze a few months, we are here to stay and do business and practices with values," Delgado said.
BW Reporters
Naina Sood is a Economics graduate and has done her post graduation in International economics and Trade. She has deep interests in Indian economy and reforms
