SUNGLASSES REPORT: MAUI JIM


2013 as Travel Retail Sales Manager for Asia Pacific and soon became a popular face with Maui Jim customers across Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Aside from the loss of a dear


colleague, many of the challenges that Maui Jim experienced affected all in the DF&TR industry last year. “Regardless of category or brands, whether the issue was geopolitical, currency-related or any other, Maui Jim wasn’t insulated from any of them,” he added. “It was a challenging market, a soft


retail market in both travel retail and domestic.” However, the company ‘worked its way through’ the difficult year and came out the other side with a host of new incentives and promotions for 2017. These, along with a healthier trading environment in DF&TR, have provided the right conditions for the company to achieve strong double-digit growth YTD in 2017. “We anticipated and predicted


a rebound. We are cautiously optimistic we can perform at this level for the balance of 2017 and beyond.”


A soft period was expected As previously divulged earlier on in this Annual Sunglasses Report, the sunglasses category has been able to incrementally grow its share of fashion & accessories sales since 2004. Unfortunately


it remained


basically flat in 2015. When TRBusiness asked Marks if he thought sunglasses has reached its peak in terms of its market share of fashion


& accessories’ sales, he was defiant. “Absolutely not. True sustained


growth for all categories will ultimately encounter ‘soft’ periods – 2016 was not entirely unexpected.” Marks believes that in order


to ensure the continued growth of sunglasses’ share of the F&A category and the DF&TR channel as a whole, the category needs to essentially gain more retail space in ‘preferred locations’. Marks said the company will


continue to ‘execute the principles that make Maui Jim the No 1 premium polarised brand in the world’; customer service and exceptional products. However, Marks is also acutely


aware of ongoing major changes to the industry which could hamper the company’s progress this year including consolidation within both the sunglasses category and among the top travel retailers. Despite this he believes that global


terrorism/geopolitical circumstances and currency volatility remain the biggest threats to the industry as a whole. Still, the company charges on


with its mission to grow the power of the brand in travel retail. As many


Blue Hawaii collection takes centre stage in Singapore


Blue Hawaii, the cool new collection from Maui Jim, was firmly in the spotlight


on the Maui Jim stand at the recent TFWA Asia Pacific exhibition in May. Launched a year ago, the collection


was ‘immediately successful’ and has now been expanded to include frames that will suit all styles, activities and face shapes. Blue Hawaii models feature a blue


Maui Jim's new Red Sands frame from the Blue Hawaii collection.


JULY 2017


mirror coating which is applied to a grey base lens to create ‘one of the most stylish lenses on the market’, assures Maui Jim. New to the Blue Hawaii collection


are Red Sands (#432), a rectangular frame from the PureAir Collection with MauiPure lenses; Peahi (#202) a wrap style with SuperThin (ST) Glass lenses; and Ho’okipa (#407), one of Maui Jim’s ‘legendary’ sport styles, which features rimless polycarbonate bi-gradient lenses. The original Blue Hawaii collection


features Baby Beach, Cliff House, Mavericks and Wiki Wiki aviator styles with MauiPure lenses, plus the high- fashion Leia and Sweet Leilani nylon frames with ST Glass lenses.


TRBUSINESS 49


Jeremy Tan with Maui Jim colleagues Silvana (left) and Sonja (middle).


“True sustained growth for all categories will ultimately encounter ‘soft’ periods – 2016 was not entirely unexpected.”


Giles Marks, Maui Jim


other suppliers and retailers have identified, millennials appear key to unlocking incremental growth. “Millennials are clearly an


important consumer group for all retailers/suppliers,” he said. “[We are] refining our marketing programmes to attract this emerging population base, whilst continuing to preserve the integrity of our brand.” «


Above: One of Maui Jim’s Swept Away styles.


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