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“Sales were up +56% last year in duty free“ |
Giles Marks Director Global Travel Retail Maui Jim Sunglasses |
US/HAWAII. Maui Jim is turning up the heat on its Hawaiian sunglasses brand amid a period of “phenomenal” growth for the company in both domestic and travel retail markets.
Buyers responsible for this fast-growing product category of the travel retail industry will already be familiar with the laidback vibe emanating from the Maui Jim booth at the major trade fairs in Cannes, Singapore and Orlando. But behind the casual, friendly approach and the loud Hawaiian shirts lies an ambitious company with 700 employees that just keeps on expanding.
“Sales were up +56% last year in duty free,” enthuses Maui Jim Sunglasses Director Global Travel Retail Giles Marks, who embodies the “˜Aloha’ spirit of the brand. He was speaking to the travel retail press – including The Moodie Report – at the company’s corporate headquarters in Peoria, Illinois just after the 2011 IAADFS show last month. The media cohort was whisked from Orlando to Peoria on Maui Jim’s very own private jet – named “˜Aloha One’ – which the company uses to ferry its customers in double-quick time from the corporate HQ to the spiritual home of Maui Jim in Hawaii.
Echoing Marks’s bullish words is Michael Dalton, the flamboyant co-owner and President of Maui Jim Sunglasses, who is responsible for planting a piece of Hawaii in this mid-size American town. He may play the role of the Tommy Bahama-clad surfing dude, but he’s the go-to expert on polarized eyewear or “street wear” as he likes to call it, and he’s responsible for running the financial and logistical side of the firm.
After a period heading an optical company in Peoria, acting as the US distributor for Maui Jim sunglasses, Dalton merged his firm in 1996 with the man who then owned the brand – a man he simply calls “Walter”. (Surnames are just too formal in Maui Jim’s casual-but-professional universe. It’s only after I ask that I discover his full name is Walter Hester III.) Walter, a former oil executive, quit corporate life to live in Hawaii, where he’d acquired a tiny polarized sunglasses operation in Maui run by “Maui Jim”, and now looks after the creative side of the brand. Since then, Maui Jim has grown from 15 employees to around 700, based in the company’s 12 Hawaiian-inspired subsidiaries all around the world.
The latest outposts to open include India and Dubai – where the newly appointed Martine Larroque takes care of the Middle East market – and a new office in Hong Kong, which is expected to spearhead further expansion in the booming Asian region. The Asian travel retail business is handled by Singapore-based Ben Arriola, while Silvana Garcia takes care of travel retail clients in the Americas from Miami. At time of writing the company is seeking someone to manage and continue the growth and service with its European customers. Marks, a Canadian national, heads up the team from Toronto. He says around 3% of the company’s revenue comes from duty free, and this figure is climbing.
Dalton is absolutely clear on what sets Maui Jim apart in the crowded sunglasses sector: polarized lens technology. The company has built its success on its patented PolarizedPlus2 technology which offers wearers glare- and squint-free vision in the sun. All its lenses are 99.9% polarized with an anti-reflective coating to enhance the optics. “The basic patent is still the best sunglass lens in the world,” he asserts. Conscious that some consumers may not be familiar with the term polarized, he adds: “It’s all about educating consumers about polarized, getting them to try the sunglasses on and look, and letting them see the difference.”
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“Last year, we enjoyed the largest ever annual dollar sales increase, and since the beginning of the year we’ve had very strong sales“ |
Michael Dalton President Maui Jim Sunglasses |
Stepping up the fashion quotient
On Maui Jim’s growth, which Dalton describes as “phenomenal,” he says confidently: “We saw double-digit growth every year until 2009, and in that year we were down about 9-10%. From our 12 subsidiaries around the world, we were only down in two markets: the US and Dubai. The others were even or up, and we’re talking about sales of a luxury premium item. Last year, we enjoyed the largest ever annual dollar sales increase, and since the beginning of the year we’ve had very strong sales.” As a private company, he declines to give figures. Maui Jim currently generates some 60% of its turnover in the US and 40% internationally. And, he notes: “We’ve never advertised to the consumer until last year. Until then we relied on organic growth through the retailers.”
He also puts the brand’s success down to the fact that the sales people are all salaried employees who are adept at staff training at retail. The company has a dedicated merchandiser who takes care of London Heathrow Airport’s duty free operation, and it is seeking staff trainers for Nuance Australia and Dubai.
While Dalton is convinced that the company’s USP is “all about lens technology”, he acknowledges that rival brands such as Oakley and Ray-Ban offer polarized lenses too and that he’s in the fashion business “to some extent”. “We are not at the cutting edge but we want to be fashionable. Consumers are demanding a little more – they’re saying “˜what other benefits are we getting?'”
Dalton notes that Maui Jim is not a vertically integrated company but uses third-party manufacturers because they are world-class experts in their field and constantly pushing the technological boundaries, but at the end of the day “It’s all about the people we have. The products don’t shift themselves.” The company’s loyal staff – many of whom have worked at the firm for many years – are given lots of benefits, such as stock options, a canteen, a gymnasium, comfortable Hawaiian-themed lounge areas – and even a safe place to shelter when typhoons hit the town. “We foster a friendly Hawaiian honour culture. There are no clocks, no cameras or security, and we have no internal theft,” says Dalton.
Success is also about customer service, he believes. “We over-inventory and we want to get everything right first time. With our customers, if they expect 50 pairs of sunglasses, they get 50 pairs. We want to keep customers happy. No-one will get into trouble for doing too much to keep people happy.”
Dalton cites the smooth-running of the repair service, which boasts a three-day turnaround time. If your dog chews your sunglasses, you even get a bone through the post together with the mended pair, and a note along the lines of “Have Fido chew on this bone next time.”
Turning to the Maui Jim brand’s target audience, Dalton observes that “the average age is getting younger”. To this end, the company has developed Facebook and Twitter initiatives. On the product side, the company has introduced a number of fresh designs and lens developments for its more fashionable followers. These new trend-driven lines were displayed to buyers at the 2011 IAADFS show in Orlando the week before this interview took place. More is to come, as Dalton and Hester recently hired Richard Walker, a New York-based creative supremo who has worked on The Matrix movies, to inject a little more mojo into Maui Jim. Walker works closely on the new product development side with John Sanchez, another recent Maui Jim hire, and a former executive at high-performance sports optics specialist Bushnell.
Celebrity endorsement will also become a feature of the newly fashionable Maui Jim. “We’ll give product to sports personalities and celebrities; you’ll see more of this,” promises Dalton. Maui Jim dipped a toe into the waters of sports endorsement with high-ranked tennis player Elena Dementieva in early 2010, but the Russian star was forced to retire through injury some months later.
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Left: Maui Jim’s Aloha Friday model with HCL lenses; the popular Punchbowl model in tortoiseshell | |
New market opens for Maui Jim
Coinciding with these exciting developments was the company’s acquisition at the end of last year of Zeal Optics, opening up a whole new market of younger consumers. Colorado-based Zeal specialises in hi-tech ski goggles that give the wearer a wealth of measurements such as altitude and ski speed, as well as GPS capability. Dalton says Zeal will be re-launched at the Vision Expo West trade fair in Las Vegas in October 2011, and the all-polarized products will retail from US$89 to US$149.
A growing part of Maui Jim’s business is prescription lenses, a service which started five years ago and now generates 20% of its turnover. The company recently poured millions of dollars of investment into new machinery for its all-digital, environmentally friendly labs in Peoria, which can turn round some 1,000 Rx jobs in a day. The Maui Jim team is thinking about how it could offer this service in the pressurised, impulse-driven duty free environment, where such a service has always been deemed too difficult to offer.
Charity giving has always been an important part of Maui Jim’s endeavours. The staff regularly take part in sporting events to raise money for the boy scouts so they can take inner city children on outdoor camping trips. Each year Dalton invites top professional golfers to participate in the annual Maui Jim charity golf tournament, which raises US$2-3 million each year. And in February 2011, Maui Jim became one of the first corporate sponsors of the Roger Rasheed Sporting Fund, an initiative started by the famous professional tennis player and coach which gives sporting opportunities to children who would not otherwise have access to them. Healthy outdoor pursuits are positively encouraged at the company, in line with its wholesome Hawaiian image.
Last but not least, image. Another new and significant addition to the Maui Jim team is Vice President of Marketing Linda Glassel, who is responsible for spreading the word about Maui Jim in all channels, including the new website at www.mauijim.com. In her “Welcome to color” presentation, she introduces the company’s new advertising campaign and ad imagery, which majors on the brilliant blue sea of Hawaii. Appropriately, “See the brilliance” is the tagline that invites consumers to opt for a pair of PolarizedPlus2 sunglasses featuring the best technology.
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See the brilliance: Maui Jim’s new advertising campaign majors on the brilliant blue sea and colourful flora of Hawaii | |
As for product innovations, two new product lines are about to be launched: MauiFlex, a range of fashionable “˜memory metal’ frames retailing at around US$309; and a collection of sunglasses featuring proprietary new MauiGradient single-gradient lenses (see separate story).
Amid all this major corporate investment, would Maui Jim ever consider selling out to one of the large eyewear groups? Dalton is quick to bat away this question, admitting the company is approached every year but has no intention of selling. I guess it’s because working at Maui Jim is way too much fun.
For details, contact Giles Marks, Maui Jim Sunglasses, One Aloha Lane, Peoria, Illinois 61615, US, tel: +1 905 338 5524 or e-mail gmarks@mauijim.com Visit www.mauijim.com
