This Supplier is Selling 7 MN Glassware Every Year

Delivering trusted international quality glassware, LUCARIS has become one of the Asia’s first premium crystal glassware brand. Proudly standing among all the major European brands, at LUCARIS, they believe in their experts for making crystal glass and keeping the best value crystal creations for food service professionals. Excerpts from the interview:

Tell us about the journey of ‘LUCARIS’ in the world of F&B.

LUCARIS, being the official glassware partner mainly in Thailand, India, China, Hong Kong, and Indonesia has been supporting Asia’s wine and food as well as hotel industry for 8 years.  It is always our priority to take part in the hospitality growth & development in Asia. LUCARIS has therefore become the preferred choice of high-end and luxury hotel brands such as Marriott, Hilton, Kempinski, InterContinental, Accor, Hyatt, and Shangri-La across Asia to name a few.

Share your thought on the global and national wine trend which is constantly changing every now and then.

I have seen the rapid growth of wine consumption across Asia and I am surprised to know that Asia actually drives the highest growth of wine consumption in the world.  Personally I would support the changing lifestyle of modern Asians to become the moderate wine consumers as drinking a glass of wine everyday would be good for health. It actually relaxes the mind and brings smile to the face.

How LUCARIS is trying to infuse Asian traditions into western modernity?

We can’t deny that drinking wine is from the western culture.  Asian culture is totally different from western culture. For instance, we like to share food. When it comes to wine and food pairing, we will need to learn how to select the best wine which can go along with the best food. One of the key activation for LUCARIS is to educate how to select the right wine with the right wine glass with your shared dishes. We have done so many tasting sessions and master classes with the Masters of Wine and sommeliers that can help us introduce this specific knowledge.

 How has the journey of the brand LUCARIS been till now while marking its presence across the world?

It’s been a great success I believe. In Thailand, LUCARIS has become the No.1 crystal glass brand for our target wine consumers and No.2 awareness brand for luxury hotel clients.  In China and India, after the first year of market activation, LUCARIS is in fourth rank of the crystal brand awareness and we aim to reach in the top three ranks by 2018.

LUCARIS is a collaborative achievement between Ocean Glass, Toyo-Sasaki and Martin Ballendat. How did the partnership happen?

In 2009, Ocean Glass decided to invest in the new factory for crystal glasses and we joined hands with Toyo-Sasaki Glass, the largest glassware manufacturer in Japan to exchange the know-how of the glass making.  For the glass design, we collaborated with Martin Ballendat, the award-winning designer from Germany who had many experiences designing the luxury wine glasses. Together, we have made the world class quality product which has been trusted from the leading brands in the industry worldwide.

How is the company growing? What new can we witness from your end in coming years?

We have grown by over 350% since 2012 with a significant double digit year on year growth. In 2017, our growth in India was around 40% over 2016. We focus more on Asia yet we have been selling up to 70 lakh (7 million) pcs a year worldwide.

How do you overcome the growing competition?

The key driver of our business success is the differentiation. How we make the brand story more interesting?  And, how we innovate unique concept and products?