The Dutch brand trying to make buying glasses fun is launching its first Irish store
Ace & Tate will open its first outlet in Dublin after seeing strong online demand here.
A DUTCH EYEWEAR brand that aspires to make shopping for glasses as “fun” as buying sneakers is opening its first Irish outlet later this month.
Amsterdam-based Ace & Tate plans to open a unit on Exchequer Street in Dublin – a stone’s throw from the busy Grafton Street shopping area – on 21 August.
Founded five years ago, the company already ships products to Ireland through its online store.
CEO and founder Mark de Lange, who has family connections in Cork, said Ace & Tate chose Dublin as the location of its newest shop based on existing online sales figures.
“We’ve seen our data. There was a strong base for us to open, in particular in Dublin. We just saw a lot of orders, a lot of requests coming from Dublin. Lots of site visits. That’s the kind of metrics we look at when we open a store,” he told Fora.
De Lange revealed that Ireland “wasn’t on our road map for just now, but the data was so convincing that we thought, we need to take a closer look”.
Ace & Tate's Antwerp shop
When asked whether the company plans to open other outlets in the capital, or elsewhere in the country, de Lange said Ace & Tate always aims to have multiple stores in each country.
“That’s definitely a pattern, but I would always like to see what the first store does and how it develops. The plans are definitely there, the ambition is definitely there, but I’d love to see how things develop before progressing,” he said.
The Dublin branch will employ 10 people in total. The company has already advertised for roles such as store manager, dispensing optician and optometrist.
Lighthearted purchase
De Lange – who was previously managing partner at early-stage investment firm Global Grid Capital – set up Ace & Tate because he was dissatisfied with the experience of buying glasses.
“The process of buying glasses was not a lot of fun. It took a lot of time to get glasses, from the moment you’re in the optician to actually picking them up,” he said.
“I thought it could be a more fun and more lighthearted purchase, like buying sneakers, that it could be faster and could be more transparent and cheaper without trading off on product quality or service quality.”
Ace & Tate is geared towards primarily younger shoppers – its core market ranges in age from 20 to 40 – and aims to sell more than one frame to each customer.
“I think glasses are not just a medical necessity. It fundamentally changes you when you put on a different pair of glasses or when you first wear a pair of glasses … It is actually an accessory that’s an expression of who you are,” de Lange said.
Ace & Tate's Antwerp shop
The outfit’s range of sunglasses and prescription glasses start at €98 and are sourced from the same factories as “all the very big brand names”.
“We’re not the cheapest, but we are on the very affordable end of the scale,” de Lange said.
Founded in 2013, Ace & Tate currently operates 30 stores across the Netherlands, UK, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Austria. It employs around 400 people.
De Lange said the company doesn’t disclose revenue figures but doubled its year-on-year sales in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
