Sunny Days Ahead

Oakley Inc. (Foothill Ranch, Calif.) has announced expansion plans for Iacon Inc., the company's wholly owned specialty sunglass retailer.

For 2003, Iacon plans to open about 20 new locations under its four different concepts — Occhiali da Sole, Sporting Eyes, Sunglass Designs and Oakley Icon. The stores will be located nationwide and will feature both kiosks and in-line store formats.

“We will be continuing our pursuit of the best locations in the best malls throughout the country,” says Jeff Obstfeld, president of Iacon. “Our development plans this year will start with the remodel of our Occhiali da Sole store at Tyson's Corner in Virginia. Two new stores, one Occhiali da Sole and one Sunglass Designs, will follow in the Houston Galleria in Houston, Texas.”

The company also will open an Occhiali da Sole store in the Cherry Creek Mall (Denver) early in the second quarter.

“In addition to the growth of our own concepts, we look forward to the continued expansion of our HMSHost licensed airport locations. Last year we doubled our locations to four and look forward to continuing to build upon this relationship,” says Obstfeld.

The company also announced the promotions of Pete Siegle, Greg Wicklman and Rudy Esquivel.

Siegle was given the newly created position of director of stores. Prior to this, Siegle served as the Eastern Regional manager and oversaw the expansion of the Iacon concepts in Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and Missouri. Prior to joining Iacon, Siegle was a senior executive with Sunglass Hut and has more than 27 years of specialty retail experience in the sunglass and optical eyewear industry.

Wicklman has been promoted to the newly created title of director of planning and distribution. Wicklman previously served as Iacon's merchandise manager/planner at the home office in Scottsdale, Ariz. At Sunglass Hut, he served as planning manager, international planning manager, director of merchandising systems, and most recently, director of store planning and distribution.

Iacon also announced the promotion of Esquivel, a 12-year Iacon veteran, to the newly created position of director of store development and training. Esquivel was director of retail operations and instrumental in streamlining company operations. He has also served as zone manager for both Texas and Arizona.