Design Eyewear Group CEO Lars Flyvholm with William Morris founder and designer Robert Morris

Denmark-based Design Eyewear Group (DEG) has expanded its portfolio of brands with the acquisition of quintessentially British eyewear design company William Morris.

Dating back to the 1973 establishment of Danish eyewear company ProDesign, DEG has seven brands including ProDesign, well-known French brands Face à Face and Woow, plus Nifities, Inface, Alium and Kilsgaard. Since securing additional investment and restructuring the company for growth, DEG has been looking to acquire another European brand which was not French or Danish for some years, said DEG brand manager Annette Jensen.

The company informally approached Robert William Morris, founder, director and designer of William Morris before Covid, but talks got underway in earnest just under a year ago. DEG CEO Lars Flyvholm said it was William Morris’ Britishness that piqued DEG’s interest. “Robert represents that in himself and as a brand, and we are all about brand and identities. The brands we have today are Danish or French, so we wanted a third leg to stand on. This opportunity came up and it couldn’t be a better match.”

When asked about potential overlaps with other DEG brands, Flyvholm said there is a lot more to a product than just the brand, “There is the whole story.” When DEG has integrated other brands and collections there have been some adjustments. For example, Inface, the company’s Scandinavian minimalist design brand, is being redirected to a younger, 25-35-year-old demographic, partly because there are some similarities to William Morris, said Flyvholm.

Most importantly, Robert will continue to direct the design of the William Morris brand, he said. “The product, the identity, the collection is great, but what William Morris has been working on for a long time is international growth. We can be the accelerator for that, as we have the distribution network and the setup.”

Morris agreed that allowing him to concentrate on design and to continue to be brand ambassador was key to his decision to join DEG. “It was massive. I’m not a logistical guy. That’s one of the good things about getting older, you recognise what you’re good at and what you’re not so good at. So now DEG has freed me up to enjoy what I do most, which is the design and people side of the business.”

Morris said he’s also excited about the international support DEG will bring to the brand. “They are going to accelerate it and put it on a much bigger stage. The US, for example, is 48% of their business, but we are still very small there, so suddenly we are going to become a brand in the US!”

Keeping William Morris’ UK office as the design hub for the British brand and knowing his team will continue to be employed was vital, said Morris. Flyvholm agreed, pointing out that Face à Face and Woow remain very French, despite being a key part of the Danish group. So now DEG will have a Danish design hub, a French design hub and a British design hub, headed by Robert Morris, he said. “We wouldn’t have invested in this brand without Robert. The financial press says it’s an acquisition, but for us it’s an integration, an addition to the family.”

As for New Zealand, nothing will change here, said Mark Collman of William Morris distributor Phoenix Eyewear. “Our customers will receive the same great service they are accustomed to. It’s business as usual.”