Ópticas Cottet will open its first establishment in Lisbon in 2023

The Cottet Óptica y Audiología group wants to make the introduction of its network of establishments in Portugal a reality next year, as part of the expansion plan foreseen for this family business. The company has begun negotiations with an optometrist from Lisbon who has shown interest in leading the opening of the first Cottet establishment in the Portuguese capital. The project has an initial budget of around 800,000 euros to open its own store, according to Cottet's president, Javier Cottet, who insisted thatthe growth will be "smart and healthy" and mainly with own funds.The growth in Portugal, which the pandemic has postponed, is part ofa broader, five-year expansion plan, in which the Cottet group contemplates the opening of 20 owned centers and 10 franchised ones, in Spain and in the neighboring country, after the 2020 crisis led to a business reorganization with the sale of the 13 Cottet Audio hearing centers to the audiology multinational Demant. Since then, Cottet Óptica y Audiología has focused on the Cottet network of establishments, whoseflagship is since 2019 the flagship located on Rambla de Catalunya, in Barcelona,with the corresponding closure of the historic store in Portal de l'Àngel. "It was a brave decision, thinking about the future," Javier Cottet acknowledged during the talkCottet: keys to continue leading after 120 years, which it offered at Casa Seat, as one more event of those that the company will carry out this year coinciding with the 120th anniversary of its founding. Javier Cottet stated that they hope "to be successful in Portugal, as has happened with the store that in 2013 we decided to open in Andorra", although he warned that the optical sector is governed by absolutely different rules in each country. In this sense, he valuedSpain's positioning as a benchmark in advances in ophthalmology and optics.The brand currently has 37 establishments, three of which are franchised, and in the next fifteen days will open another in Tarragona. Member of the fourth generation and owner of the group with his three siblings Àlex ---who holds a vice-presidency---, Sergi and Marta, the president of Cottet positioned the firm as a prominent SME "in a sector where the industry is in charge."For this reason, he defended the family business as "independent and with its own brand," which they plan to boost. In 2019, they launched their own brand Lunettier 1840, a range of classic frames inspired by the origins of the company created by his great-grandfather Constantino Cottet in the Cottet factory, in the small French town of Morez du Jurá. They also work with their own brands Urban and Urban Junior; and Cottet and Contact+ lenses. In a broad and entertaining review of the business's history, without hiding the pros and cons that have marked the future of the family group for four generations, Javier Cottet showed hope for the future:"I believe in the integration of the physical store model and online sales, being clear that the customer still wants personalized attention and the Internet should serve us to improve the quality of service""The sector has a lot of future, he added, because the presence of new technologies will force people to see well and hear better" and, in this context, "what companies like ours must do is make the customer fall in love and retain them. One should not buy only by price." During the talk with journalist Margarita Puig, Javier Cottet also had time for self-criticism: "We did not adequately manage the generational handover and, in 2015, we had to sell our Indo lens and frame industry for one euro, created by my grandfather and which came to have 2,000 workers, and which was the first in Spain and among the top five in the world." As a member of the saga, Cottet is pleased thatIndo is now in the hands of the German multinational The Rodenstock Group, a company that is no longer family-owned, but "with which my grandfather had established commercial relations, specifically with Professor Rodenstock," he said.

The claim of commerce and reproaches in Barcelona

From the commerce sector in general and the city of Barcelona, the businessman demanded more attention from the municipal administration towards local retail. "One thing is to regulate and a very different thing is to prohibit," he stated in relation to the measures being implemented by the Barcelona city council, "alleging that the city is saturated." "It seems they live on another planet," he emphasized to defend that "there is no saturation, because seeing shops full of people is positive for everyone, for commerce without a doubt, but also for the city itself."

Javier Cottet defended that without quality commerce, Barcelona will not be among the best cities in the world, and recalled that 50% of customers are not residents of the capital, nor tourists, "they are people who live in other places in Catalonia and who come to Barcelona to do some shopping and, given this, measures cannot be taken that limit their mobility," such as "eliminating the only street that connected directly with the sea, Via Laietana which, precisely, was opened by demolishing a set of buildings to achieve that direct route to the sea."

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