Spektre, a nine-year-old Italian company that has found its place in the international eyeglass market through an interesting business model, is seeking to expand through license agreements or through mergers or acquisitions like those it has recently tried to carry out, albeit without success.
In eight years, the company's sales have risen at an annual clip of 15 percent, reaching €4 million in 2017 through the sale of about 120.000 pairs. Paying attention to costs, it generates an Ebitda margin of 25 percent.
Its eyeglasses are produced by a dozen selected manufacturers in the Umbria region of Italy, where ex factory prices are lower than in the Cadore region. It is thus keeping the important “Made in Italy” label at a lower cost than some of its competitors.
The Milan-based company's first strategic choice was to focus on fashion, selling designer sunglasses priced at €300 a pair in fashion boutiques, rather than in optical retail stores, targeting consumers who look for designer items and are influenced by fashion magazines and bloggers.
At this year's edition of the Mido trade show in Milan, Spektre is launching a new high-end, limited-edition line of sunglasses called “The Riviera.” It is made up of five styles inspired by the ‘sixties whose temples are decorated by inserts in red and green leather and details in 18-karat gold. Only 130 pairs are available for each style.
Exports represent 70 percent of Spektre's sales. The most important market is the French one, followed by Hong Kong and China. The Americas comes in third place with the U.S., Mexico and Brazil.
In an interesting move, Spekre has managed to enter the highly protected Brazilian market, charging the same prices as in Europe in spite of high import duties and taxes, thanks to a strong promotional campaign based on Instagram and other social networks. The campaign featured beautiful poster girls between the ages of 18 and 24 who were completely unknown in the sector but had thousands of followers. Last year, Spektre extended its coverage to other markets in South America.