Swedish consumers rated Synsam the most sustainable brand in the optical retail sector for the third consecutive year
Synsam Group’s comprehensive improvements to benefit the environment and society have made an impression on Sweden’s consumers. In the annual Sustainable Brand Index Awards, where Swedish consumers share their opinions on the sustainability of different brands, Sweden’s leading optical retail and eye health chain remained the industry winner, climbing several places in the total ranking as well.
“Synsam Group’s decision to bring eyewear production back home to Sweden from Asia has had an enormous impact. Putting our words into action in order to reduce our climate footprint has made Synsam a role model and a company that people want to work for and patronise. We’ve had incredibly positive feedback showing that Sweden’s consumers have a genuine commitment to sustainability. It is with a warm heart and immense pride that we accept this distinction,” says Håkan Lundstedt, President and CEO of Synsam Group.
A selection of Synsam Group’s sustainability initiatives:
· Through the social initiative “Everyone should see” (“Alla ska se”), Synsam has distributed over 26,000 pairs of activity spectacles to children free of charge in order to increase their motivation to enjoy active leisure time – where problems with vision should never stand in the way.
· Synsam Group is moving its eyewear production home from Asia to Östersund. Synsam Group’s factory and innovation centre, located in the former facilities of the Jämtland wing of the Swedish Air Force, is expected to be completed by early 2022.
· Synsam opened its first second-hand store: Synsam Recycling Outlet opened in December 2020 in Linköping.
· We promoted circular consumption of spectacles that are recycled and reused. With Synsam Circular, the Group has taken its first step toward circular production. We recycle a selection of the spectacles that customers return to the recycling boxes in all of our 500 stores.
· Developed a collection using recycled plastic from the ocean – frames that have been produced in collaboration with the Spanish organisation Sea2See, which collects plastic drifting in the Mediterranean Sea.
· Launched a cooperation with one of Sweden’s foremost recycling centres for the sorting of spectacles material returned to our stores.
About Sustainable Brand Index
With 60,000 respondents and 1,400 brands, Sustainable Brand Index is Europe’s largest brand study on sustainability. In Sweden, 21,640 respondents were interviewed about 381 brands in 35 industries. The study was carried out from November 2020 to February 2021. Read more about Sustainable Brand Index at www.sb-index.com.
Synsam Group is one of Europe’s leading players in the optical retail sector and offers unique solutions within both eye health and eye fashion, with a wide range based on customers’ different lifestyles and eye health requirements. The Group operates in the Nordic region and has approximately 3,500 employees and total sales of around SEK 4 billion. In total, the Group has around 500 stores operating under the brands Synsam and, in Denmark, Profil Optik. Since 2015, Synsam Group has carried out a transformation of its entire offering and, with a high degree of digitization and other innovative concepts, achieved growth and profitability that are among the highest in Europe.
