Can’t you just see it? Gov. Lincoln Almond, dressed head to toe in black, wearing a stylish pair of aviator shades.
Or Providence Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci — never mind the marinara sauce
— his dark eyes swathed in “Ironman” glasses, ready for the next triathlon.
Maybe even the entire cast of “Providence” could do a show sporting popularly priced sunglasses by Aai.FosterGrant — it is a Rhode Island company, you know.
Or maybe you didn’t.
Even company executives agree that because of its global promotions strategy, the average Rhode Islander probably isn’t aware that the sunglasses giant’s global headquarters is just 10 minutes north of Providence on a woodsy stretch of a Smithfield highway.
Even though there are 400 people working there, “I think it’s a well-kept secret,” said Aai.Foster Grant president and chief executive officer John Ranelli, who joined the company in mid-1999.
“It doesn’t mean we’re ignoring Rhode Island,” said John Agre, Executive Director, International, seated comfortably behind his large, polished desk, a map of the world and a series of framed 60s Foster Grant spokespeople like Woody Allen and Elke Sommer on his walls.
But “the Foster Grant brand is such a beautiful brand,” that for people not to take pride that it’s a Rhode Island company is crazy, Ranelli said. “It’s a household name for everybody, and nobody even knows we’re here.”
Actually it’s been just over four years since Accessories Associates Inc., a Rhode Island jewelry company founded in 1980, acquired Foster Grant
The acquisition was “a great opportunity,” Agre said, and ultimately led then company head Gerald F. Cerce to resurrect the celebrity-studded “Who’s That Behind Those Foster Grants” campaign with supermodel Cindy Crawford and thin out the company’s product line to three major areas – jewelry, reading glasses, and of course, sunglasses.
“That’s been John’s mantra since coming in here,” Agre said. ” ‘Focus and simplify for profitability.’ “
Under Cerce, who has stayed on as board chairman, AAi purchased Foster Grant in December of 1996 for $29 million from BEC Group Inc. of Rye, N.Y. At the time of the purchase, Foster Grant was based in Dallas, where it had been operating since it was moved from Massachusetts in 1989.
In October of 1998, AAi moved Foster Grant to Smithfield, and added 100,000 square feet to its George Washington Highway plant to accommodate the new operation.
Before that Aai had been involved in lots of smaller businesses, from clocks and watches to carryalls, Agre said, whereas now “we’re doing fewer things and doing them well.”
Among the things the company does do is retain a portion of its jewelry business, since 40 percent of the company’s interests are in jewelry. Aai.FosterGrant makes costume jewelry for Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target and also has high-profile licensing agreements to make jewelry for Revlon and Almay.
But, besides a reading glasses line demonstrated by actor Robert Urich, the company’s signature is sunglasses, about 400 styles made for women, men, children – even infants.
The now-famous marketing campaign – which Advertising Age magazine ranked recently as one of the 100 best of the century – just ahead of Perdue’s “It takes a tough man to make tender chicken” – kicked off in the mid 1960s, securing the company’s stronghold in the inexpensive sunglasses market, with faces such as Raquel Welch, Anthony Quinn and Peter Sellers.
Their 1999 re-launch with Cindy Crawford was only natural, Agre said, continuing the promotional punch that originally made Foster Grant “synonymous with sunglasses” and accelerated the rise of sunglasses into a mass market fashion statement.
Third quarter profits in 2000 were up more than a third from the year before, and “there’s no doubt the amount of advertising we’ve done” played a part in that, Agre said.
Ranelli said income from operations excluding a restructuring charge increased almost 95 percent to $2.9 million in May of 2000, up from $1.5 million in 1999, an increase he said was driven by a 33.9 percent improvement in optical sales.
While results from an intensified focus on jewelry in the second half of 2000 aren’t expected until later this year, Ranelli said sunglass sales last spring were up more than 50 percent at retail from the previous year and operating income rose from just over $1 million in July of 1999 to $3.6 million for July 2000.
With offices in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and a joint venture in Mexico City, annual revenue for Aai.FosterGrant is more than $200 million.
The future’s bright at Foster Grant
While they retained many talented Aai employees, after acquiring Foster Grant the company also recruited some “pretty heady people from pretty weighty backgrounds,” Agre said.
One such heavyweight is Mark Flanagan, a designer at Ray Ban for 11 years until Bausch and Lomb sold the company.
Stylishly clad in sleek black turtleneck, slacks and boots, Flanagan proudly proffered a large, felt-lined box of sunglasses, showing a cross-section of the various styles, ranging in price from $8 to $25.
They sell about 13 million pairs of sunglasses every year at popular priced stores like K-Mart, Target and Wal-Mart, Flanagan said, and “there’s something for everybody,” from classic, active and modern to trendy and sport.
Aai.FosterGrant also licenses Ironman triathlon sunglasses in 24 styles, designed for more performance heavy sports, and while all of its lenses are plastic, mostly acrylic, they use the more impact resistant polycarbonate for the Ironman styles.
The products include features like spring hinges, rocking nose pads and rubber tips you’d expect from a more expensive brand. Flanagan said lots of mass retailers are catching on to the value of good designers.
Often with designer brands of sunglasses, you’re “paying to be part of that lifestyle,” Flanagan said, when the product itself really costs “no more to make than Foster Grants.”
There’s also “very little correlation between price point and UV protection,” Agre added.
“Sunglasses are kind of a fun, sexy product,” he said, often inspiring even the most staid adult to assume another kind of role with the flourish of a kid playing dress up.
“It’s like the cheapest form of plastic surgery,” Flanagan said.
Foster Grant began in 1919 when two men, Sam Foster and Bill Grant, established a women’s hair accessories business in Leominster, Mass., which thrived until the mid-1920s when feminine hairstyles went to short.
In 1927, Foster and Grant developed a way to mass-produce sunglasses so folks didn’t have to go to an eye doctor, and thanks to huge public desire, the business took off.
Company officials say Foster Grant today is still the number-one popularly priced maker of sunglasses, reaching about 85 percent of its market segment in the United States.
