“Something that started off as the two of us grads building sunglasses in our living room, has grown into a global brand built on local community, that’s funded by sustainable innovation” – Zoe Watkiss
Ali and Zoe Watkiss graduated from Manchester University in 2009, Ali in Architecture and Zoe in International Management with American Business Studies. After University they went to work in London as an architect and a marketer, respectively. In their spare time they set up a small business, “Hats For The Hill”, making and selling customised, hand-made winter bobble hats. While the business was profitable and grew year on year from 2009-2012 by 45 per cent it was highly seasonal, so they started to look for a business opportunity in the summer months. Their attention focused on the sunglass industry which was characterised by expensive designer glasses with high markups or inexpensive glasses that tended to break very easily.
They believed there was a market opportunity for fairly priced customised sunglasses and ski goggles so in 2013 they launched SunGod Ltd., whose mission is to “see better by creating better products, offering a better customer experience and doing better for the planet”. Its frames are manufactured using 100 per cent recycled materials, their products are sold direct to the customer with a lifetime guarantee and they are better for the planet as the company not only belongs to “1 per cent for the Planet” but it repairs broken glasses for free, thereby keeping them in circulation and out of landfill.
After 6 months of product prototyping and testing in the living room of their home they launched SunGod on the Indiegogo crowd funding site selling 4,000 pairs of glasses in a month and exceeding their target of 400 tenfold. At this point they quit their jobs and focused on building the business which they did by reinvesting profits until November 2020 when they launched their first Crowdcube campaign. Within 24 hours they had raised £1.5 million from 1004 investors which enabled them to triple the company’s revenue to £7.97 million in two years and increase its valuation by 166 per cent. In 2022, they launched their second round of crowd funding, raising £3 million in 79 minutes and attracting another 1000 investors. As a result by April 2023 the company, which has some 210,000 customers, was reported as being ranked in 687th place on the FT1000 listing of the 1000 European companies that achieved the highest growth in revenues between 2018 and 2021.
They achieved this not just by the quality and innovativeness of their glasses and goggles but by opening up niche markets and collaborating with high profile partners such as England Rugby, McLaren F1 and the INEOS professional cycling team, creating unique products for their teams and fans. As Zoe acknowledges “SunGod partnerships really are symbiotic relationships, and they’ve played a core role in getting SunGod to where we are today”.
In August 2022, SunGod was awarded B Corp status with an impact assessment score of 93.7, being noted particularly for its employee wellbeing programmes, its efforts to reduce production waste and its lifetime guarantee. As B Corp recognised “Everything that SunGod does… is for its triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. Their business practices are shaped by informed decision, seeking to do less harm and better in everything they do”.
Based in London and Verbier (Switzerland), the company provides a flexible work environment for its reported 69 employees who are recruited from all walks of life and encouraged to “challenge business as usual”. In 2023, SunGod won the King’s Award for Sustainable Development for its commitment to Sustainability in both its products and its business practices. It creates positive change in the world, impacts both its customers and its employees and addresses the UN Sustainability Development Goals, most notably SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and 13 (Climate Action). As it also partners with such like-minded businesses as Surfers against Sewage (https://www.sasshop.org.uk), The Bike Project (https://thebikeproject.co.uk) and 1% for the Planet (https://onepercentfortheplanet.org) it can be seen to be addressing SD 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) as well.
Reference
Marquis, C. (2023), Performance Eyewear SunGod Is Focused On Industry Change through B Corp Certification. Forbes, April 2.
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