Over 200 delegates attended the Sunglasses Workshop and Awards 2017 at last month’s TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes. The event – designed as an information-sharing platform to support the growth of the sunglasses category in DF&TR – was supported by De Rigo, Essilor, Kering Eyewear, Luxottica, Marchon, Marcolin and Maui Jim.

DFS Group and Kappé Schiphol were both named ‘Sunglasses Retailer of the Year’, among travel retail operators with DFS winning in the category of annual turnover above $2bn and Kappé in the sector below $2bn.

Incheon International Airport Corporation scooped the award for ‘Most Supportive Airport Authority for the Sunglasses Category’, and King Power International Group, Thailand won the award for ‘Best Off-Airport Retailer of Sunglasses’.

More than 50 entries were judged by De Rigo’s Duty Free & Licensor Boutiques Sales Manager Alessandra Piccin; Essilor’s Head of Asia Pacific & Global Duty Free Francesco Leccisi; Kering Eyewear’s Global Head of Centralised Channels Omar Hagi; Luxottica Group’s Head of Global Channels Francis Gros; Marchon’s International Travel Retail Director Erwan Le Guennec; Marcolin’s Worldwide Head of Duty Free & Travel Retail Nina Pan; and Maui Jim’s Director Duty Free Sales Giles Marks.

GROWING CATEGORY

The workshop, moderated by The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie, opened with a category performance update from Alex Cook, Managing Director of FILTR.

Cook announced a +2.7% growth in the sunglasses category in 2016, compared to 2015, which was slightly ahead of the total industry growth of +2.4%. Statistics from Generation Research also revealed that the fastest-growing region for the category was Europe at +5.0%, and the fastest growing channel was ferries at +32.7%.

This year’s workshop included two cases studies highlighting how winning strategies employed by Beirut Duty Free and Heathrow Airport achieved impressive growth in the sunglasses category.

Beirut Duty Free’s presentation revealed how the refurbishment of its sunglasses area generated sales growth of +32%. Heathrow’s video demonstrated how its proactive multi-formatting approach to the category produced +7.5% growth in 2016, compared to the year before.

The workshop concluded with a presentation from m1nd-set CEO Peter Mohn, on purchasing behaviours of consumers in the category by gender, age, region and travel traits.

 

THE WINNERS

The full list of award winners is as follows:

Best Digital Initiative for the Sunglasses Category (new for 2017):

King Power International Group – Thailand

Best Marketing Activity for the Sunglasses Category:

Dufry Group (UK Contentainment)

Best New Sunglasses Environment:

PAC Beirut Duty Free

Best Dedicated Sunglasses Sales Team:

DFS Group (Four Seasons Macau)

Most Supportive Airport Authority for the Sunglasses Category:

Incheon International Airport Corporation

Best Off-Airport Retailer of Sunglasses:

King Power International Group – Thailand

Sunglasses Retailer of the Year (turnover below $2bn):

Kappé Schiphol

Sunglasses Retailer of the Year (turnover above $2bn):

DFS Group