CMI's Brad Boult and Rosalie Machirus and Morel's Julien Porte

The newly launched Morel New Zealand received a boost in March with the arrival of the well-known French, family-owned frame designer’s regional representative, Julien Porte.

With responsibility for Morel’s business in Asia and the Pacific, Porte said being able to spend some time in New Zealand and visit some of Morel’s Kiwi customers with CMI Optical’s (now Morel NZ’s) home-based rep, Rosalie Machirus, was a pleasure.

Far from being behind Europe by five years - a commonly heard phrase when he was here briefly two years ago - New Zealand is very much up with the fashions and trends from the practices he’d visited, he said in his lilting French accent. “It’s day and night, here and Asia. Your practices are more European. I feel at home here. The people in the shops, they understand about presentation, it’s more sophisticated, clean; we understand the message.”

There is also great potential for growth, said Porte. With most of the practices here having a consumer catchment of more than 20,000 compared with about 4,000 in Paris. “They have space to grow here. There’s about 13,000 practices in France. In the same street there can be six of the biggest shops, all with same product offer, which is why we are different, we (offer) something specific in terms of design.”

Porte was in New Zealand to celebrate CMI Optical’s and Morel’s 15-year relationship and help launch Morel New Zealand. Moving CMI Optical’s Morel business into a separate entity with a dedicated rep is all about securing the future for Morel and its customers and improving efficiencies, said Porte. “So, when a practice talks to Rosalie they are talking to the factory in France. The world is getting smaller… this is about bringing the consumer and the factory closer together,” said CMI and Morel NZ director Brad Boult. “Morel has been going for 140 years. When it’s a family business you tend to be future focused, so this is about looking at the next 100 years.”

But it’s also about being flexible and respecting what Morel’s international partners want, said Porte. In New Zealand for example, Morel New Zealand will look after four of Morel’s collections, each designed with a specific consumer in mind: 1880, Lightec, Marius and Nomad, while Eyes Right Optical will continue to look after Morel’s collections in Australia and Koali and Öga in New Zealand. Boult also works closely with Eyes Right distributing Woow and its sister company Modstyle’s brands.

“That’s the whole thing about Morel, it’s about family,” he said.