Ferrari ample motivation for sunnies entrepreneur

By IRENE CHAPPLE


"Well, no one else was going to give me a Ferrari," says Regan Wood of the decision to create his own business.

Funny thing, when the Wellington-based entrepreneur could afford it the Ferrari folk wouldn't sell him one anyway.

They didn't want to talk to him - he arrived in a Toyota Echo after all, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.

So he went and bought a rather expensive Aston Martin instead.

But Wood, down at the beach when the Business Herald called, is doing all right these days.

He and business partner Angus Donald have just sold The Sunglass Store for lots of money.

Wood won't give a figure but says the business had a revenue of more than $10 million in the last financial year, with around 25 per cent of the sunglasses market.

The 20-store chain is now owned by Luxottica, an Italian giant that has also snaffled up its competitors, the Sunglass Hut International, in 2001 and OPSM, last year.

Luxottica is listed on the New York and Milan stock exchanges and has an annual turnover of $6 billion.

Wood and Donald began the business seven years ago after spying a gap in the market for specialist sunglass sales.

The business was funded by the two, with Wood selling his house and Donald cashing in his superannuation to raise around $300,000.

Money was tight in the early years - "we'd swipe the credit cards, sell the golf clubs to keep it going", says Wood.

The idea was always to sell but the decision was still difficult.

Wood attributes the success of the business to careful choice of staff, trained to accommodate customers' particular needs.

The business employed 100 staff when it was sold late last year and Wood says the retention of most of them made the decision to sell easier.

He is now looking to invest his money in a promising business.