Eyewear brand Ace & Tate is celebrating its 10th birthday by unwrapping a slew of new stores in the U.K., with nine scheduled before the end of the year.
Many of those are concentrated in the capital, where founder and chief executive officer Mark de Lange sees a “huge, huge opportunity.” The planned London expansion will allow the company to concentrate management and staff. The territory is currently the company’s priority, said de Lange.
“In terms of a marketing campaign, it makes more sense to have 10 stores than just one, and we see that with every store we open we get that incrementality and reach new customers in the London market,” he said, noting they are careful not to oversaturate and expand too quickly. They keep stores off of the high streets, instead strategizing placement on side streets to create a small store atmosphere for local residents.
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The London openings mark the start of an ambitious 2024 growth plan, during which the brand aims to unveil a store a month, including one unit planned for Berlin. The company operates 86 stores in 10 European countries, with 110 people in the Netherlands, and roughly 600 at the stores.
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The U.S, however, is not in his sights — for now.
“I’m not a big soccer guy, but if you think about consumer markets, the U.S. would be the Premier League. Would I love to play in that arena, personally? Yes. Do I think it makes sense for the business today? Probably not. Because there’s so much ground to cover on our own doorstep and building a sizable business here in Europe.”
De Lange is betting big on that European market.
The company’s most recent financial filing reported 55.5 million euros in sales in 2022, with operating losses of 11 million euros, much of that due to openings and staffing up in new locations.
“We don’t see [losses] that way; we see that as an investment versus a cost,” he said. “We have tried to control our costs. We see in our numbers and our performance that the market is there. If our existing stores and new stores were not performing then we would stop investing. It’s just a rational decision.”
De Lange expects double-digit growth through 2025, driven by both store openings and same-store organic growth. While it is still “a digital business at heart,” de Lange said, it’s a high-touch product driven by in-person sales.
The executive cites research that estimates growth ranging from 6.5 to 8.5 percent year-over-year for the eyewear market over the next decade. Much of that has to do with an aging population. Early on the company courted the 25- to 35-year-old demographic, but as that cohort ages they still want hip, stylish choices. Plus they’re having kids now, too, so the brand launched a children’s line last year.
The company is striving to innovate and improve design, as evidenced in the fall 2023 collection, which includes more detail and style touches.
Still, he’s careful not to frame it as a fashion business, and wants to make a product that has a longer shelf life. He’s frank in a way that other CEOs aren’t about the realities of sustainability.
“’Sustainability’ doesn’t exist. If you make a product, you’re not sustainable, full stop,” he said. It was not a consideration when he launched, but after reading Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s book “The Responsible Company,” de Lange changed his philosophy.
“If you make a product, your responsibility as a business is to try to minimize the harm. So that has been our ambition ever since,” he said. That path led to the company examining its supply chain, quantifying its carbon footprint and eventually getting B-Corp certification in 2021.
“Right now the consumer or everyone is waking up to the climate crisis. It’s no longer ‘sustainability is nice.’ It’s clear we’re in a pretty profound and existential crisis, all of us, so I would hope and expect for people to be looking for more responsible alternatives out there,” he said.
“We are making steps. In the end, we’re not saying we’re a sustainable company, we’re not. But we try to improve quarter over quarter to be the most sustainable alternative,” he said.
The B-Corp certification has changed the company culture, he noted. “Now it’s something that everyone is thinking about on a day-to-day basis, which is the way it should be, instead of teams fighting each other on getting these metrics.”
Solving what he calls the sustainability puzzle is the biggest challenge for any business in this new era, which incorporates everything from sourcing to resale. For the latter, the brand had a partnership with Depop, which was successful but ultimately had its own sustainability challenges when the refurbishment and shipping carbon footprint was examined. The company is reevaluating these types of programs.
“We want to understand [take-back and resale] — there must be a way to do this that actually makes sense from an environmental point of view, and that’s what we’re looking for,” he said. “It is definitely something that is on our roadmap. Circularity, ultimately, is a piece of the puzzle.”
Some other steps include using bio resin and injected recycled acetate to reduce waste, and the company has also revamped its shipping process as it sources from Cambodia, China, and Vietnam, as well as closer shores including Italy and Hungary. The company has also added more in-store lens production to reduce shipping.
The brand has a handful of collaborations under its belt. The most high profile is its partnership with Ganni, which came about through vice president of marketing Sean Gregory Peron’s long-standing friendship with Ganni CEO Andrea Baldo.
“Ganni might be a true fashion brand, but it is also a pioneer in the sustainability space. It’s great to learn from their point of view,” de Lange said. The collaboration has been so successful it’s going into its second year, and they have ideas in the works for a third.
Ace & Tate’s recent collaboration with textile innovator Byborre came about in a similar way. De Lange has known founder Borre Akkersdijk “forever,” and the two would take walks in the park together during the pandemic. While their partnerships have so far been based on friendship and value alignment, de Lange is now looking at taking a more strategic approach and “settle into a rhythm of about two or three per year.”
The biggest shake-up he sees in the next decade is AI, which he believes will fundamentally change the retail business, particularly sourcing and logistics. There’s also a lot of buzz around AI-enhanced digital eye tests, which could revolutionize the glasses business, as well as frame design.
“It’s going to fundamentally change everything we do, I think. But it’s super hard for me to say anything sensible about 10 years from now,” he joked. “If COVID[-19] taught us anything, it’s very hard to make any predictions, but we need to be very adaptable to the business.”