FRANCE. DFS Group and Kappé Schiphol were awarded the prizes for the Sunglasses Retailer of the Year in the over $2bn and under $2bn categories respectively, at the ninth annual Sunglasses Workshop and seventh Sunglasses Awards.
The events, which took place on 3 October during TFWA World Exhibition, were created as a sharing platform to drive growth for the whole sunglasses category in travel retail, and co-hosted by leading sunglasses suppliers De Rigo, Essilor, Kering Eyewear, Luxottica, Marchon, Marcolin and Maui Jim.
The awards received a record number of entries, reflecting huge potential in a category that is striving to grow its share of total travel retail sales — total duty free sales reached $63.5bn in 2016 according to the latest Generation Research — to $4bn by 2020 as part of the “Vision 2020” initiative. Sunglasses sales in travel retail amounted to $1.73bn in 2016.
The winners of the 2017 Sunglasses Awards are:
The workshop, moderated by The Moodie Davitt Report founder & Chairman Martin Moodie, featured presentations on the latest category performance from Generation Research and consumer insights from a bespoke category study commissioned by the sunglasses suppliers from research house m1nd-set.
Heathrow Airport and Middle East retailer PAC SAL – Beirut Duty Free gave presentations on their most recent activities for the sunglasses category and how they are approaching the challenge of growing the category in line with the Vision 2020 objective.
The judging panel comprises: De Rigo Duty Free & Licensor Boutiques Sales Manager Alessandra Piccin; Essilor Head of Asia Pacific & Global Duty Free Francesco Leccisi; Kering Eyewear Global Head of Centralised Channels Omar Hagi; Luxottica Head of Global Channels Francis Gros; Marchon International Travel Retail Director Erwan Le Guennec; Marcolin Worldwide Head of Duty Free & Travel Retail Nina Pan and Maui Jim Director Duty Free Sales Giles Marks.