Hi Michael it’s a real pleasure to interview you and to know something more about your beautiful company, but also about you who today leads it.
Lunor is one of the projects related to luxury with the strongest identity worldwide: please tell us briefly your history and the reasons of this name.

The pleasure is all mine! Back in 1991 Lunor started with solid 18kt gold frames. The brand name actually derives from the combination of the French words for golden frame, “Lunette d’or”. In 2005 we took over the company and started a slow but steady process of rebranding.
We never lost focus on the fundamental brand values, which still determine what we do today: classy, high-quality vintage eyewear, with a special touch, hand-crafted in small traditional artisan workshops. In this year we´ll go full circle and launch a new 18kt solid gold frame at Silmo Paris again.

You have just opened your beautiful offices, made with great attention towards environment, functionality and domotics. Tell us about.

We ran out of space in the old rented building which, at a certain point, was both inconvenient and also obstructive to the working and logistic processes. For example, there was no elevator between the main storage and the logistics area and generally the rooms were really crowded. Therefore, we designed the new space to be a single floor building also with enough spare room to cope with possible future growth.
As we are located in the beautiful Black Forest, surrounded by trees and even a preserved area, a main requirement to the architects was to always have a nice view to the surrounding. We resigned on unnecessary walls and preferred a large glass front instead. The interior concept was created together with specialists from the famous Swiss furniture brand VITRA to optimize workflows and communication.
The building is equipped with 69kW of photovoltaics and a huge storage battery. Additionally, the heating and air-conditioning uses geothermal energy. The combination of both geothermal and photovoltaic energy allows for a nearly self-sustaining daily operation. The corporate car fleet will gradually be replaced by electric cars, the first two are already solar powered by a charger on the parking space.

The market is continuously changing, the big groups choose shortcuts buying ready-made and winning projects, which quite often loose their identity, what do you think about?

As we are a family business, we don´t need to please any external shareholder. Our strategic decisions are always based on a longterm
scale. We are highly convinced that a brand can only exist with a strong and consistent brand identity, which creates both trust and also differentiation.
From an economic perspective it can certainly make sense for (big) companies to acquire other brands to extend their portfolio and generate additional profit. But as soon as a brand deteriorates, due to a sole focus on economics and figures, the lack of a brand identity will definitely lead to comparability and declining brand loyalty. You end up with a fancy hull and a logo and that´s it. People won´t understand the idea behind the brand or the products anymore and will resign on you.

Headquarters

What does luxury mean to you?

For me, real luxury is quality aiming for perfection. Products that last for a long period of time (even multiple generations) and are handcrafted with passion and love for details.

See the LYF hard copy for the full interview.