Right before MultiOpticas’ 30th anniversary celebration held at the Xabregas Palace, in Lisbon, its CEO Rui Borges, during an interview to ÓpticaPro, evaluated the three decades that changed the eyeware market in Portugal and consolidated the company as a sales leader.
ÓpticaPro: Let’s start with a cliché interview question. How would you evaluate these 30 years?
Rui Borges: Well, 30 years is a long time and the overall balance is very positive. In fact, MultiOpticas started in this business in 1988 and it has never been a simple operator; instead, the company has changed the business paradigm of retail eyeware of that time. I remember buying my first glasses; I had just been accepted to the Lisbon Institute of Economics and Management (ISEG) and as comical as it may sound, I needed to see an optometrist. I lived in downtown Lisbon and finding such a professional in that area was an impossible task. I still keep these glasses safely stowed at home. This is just to illustrate what MultiOpticas represented in the early 1980’s.
When the company entered the Portuguese market after being established in Spain, it offered a wide range of high-quality products. Such concept stirred up and changed the business paradigm bringing highly competitive prices, diversifying supply and democratizing the sector. Since then, a lot has happened, particularly because when we stirred up the market some competitors copied systems based on our concept, whilst others were based on different formats.
Read the entire cover interview in ÓpticaPro’s June edition.
