Global eyewear specialist Rodenstock is ending the year on a high note having significantly increased the number of doors for its Porsche Design sunglasses brand in global travel retail during 2019.
With almost 30 new openings this year across Asia, EMEA, North America and Latam, Rodenstock’s Director Global Retail Eyewear Petra Eckhardt-Koestler says that the result reflects the company’s commitment to the sector, working closely with retailer partners to offer top quality product supported by instore marketing and promotional campaigns that engage directly with the travelling consumer.
The year has seen extensive openings in China where Eckhardt-Koestler describes the relationship with China Duty Free Group as “working incredibly well”. These include airport, downtown and border stores such as Guangzhou, ChongQing, Beijing (airports), Sihanoukville (downtown) and Heihe (border). Particularly successful this year has been the P’8531 CDFG Special Edition sunglasses model, with just 500 pairs sold in locations including Guangzhou, Haikou, Manzhouli and Cambodia. “Working with retailers to offer exclusives and special editions created for them is crucial in this competitive market,” she says. “The P’8531 is the best-selling sunglasses model from Porsche Design and the special edition sold extremely well.”
In EMEA new locations have been opened in numerous airports including Helsinki, Lisbon, St Petersburg, and Kuwait with Dufry, while across the Atlantic, business is now “really beginning to take off in the Americas”, according to Eckhardt-Koestler.
“We are particularly pleased to have opened with Hudson at JFK, Fort Lauderdale and Las Vegas airports,” she says. “This is working extremely well for us and – with additional new openings in Canada and the US – has given us a really effective footprint in the Americas travel retail sunglasses sector. Dufry is a superb partner for us in North America and EMEA and we’re looking forward to further developing our business with them in 2020.”
For Petra Eckhardt-Koestler, the final icing on the cake has been winning two awards this year: the DFNI Sunglasses Product Award and the Travel Retail Consumer-Voted award for Best Sunglasses/Eyewear Product. “This has been an exceptionally good year for Rodenstock and we would like to thank all our retail partners for their support and belief in our brands. Here’s to an equally fantastic 2020!”
