A Sunny Future for Sunglass Hut : Sales: The successful retailer plans to issue a mail-order catalogue and sell its products on cable television, as well as expand its outlets.

Sunglass Hut International is out to sell a little shade to everyone under the sun.

“Our goal is literally to put sunglasses on every face in the world,” said Jack Chadsey, president and chief executive.

The rapidly growing company, which went public last June, is already the largest specialty retailer of non-prescription sunglasses. It will issue its first mail-order catalogue May 1 and has begun talks to explore selling sunglasses on cable television’s Home Shopping Network.

Sales have soared to $180 million in 1993 from $73 million in 1989, a 25% compounded annual growth rate.

Figuring into the company’s success is a trend toward sunglass endorsement by celebrities, said Ogi Ellison, manager of Sunglass Huts in Huntington Beach and Westminster. Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan promotes Ray Bans; several baseball players have endorsed Oakleys.

“The coaches tell the baseball players to come over here and buy them,” she said. The same goes for volleyball players, she added.

There is actually more to sunglasses than meets the eyes, Ellison said. Boaters should use sunglasses with polarized lenses and skiers need “irradium” lenses to protect against glare, she said.

“I train all my associates to know the products,” Ellison said.

Chadsey, the company’s CEO, said his tactic is to flood the market with Sunglass Hut outlets.

Sunglass Hut has 700 stores in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Britain. Seven of the stores are in Orange County. It hopes to boost the total to 2,500 stores in the next six years, adding stores in Mexico, Japan and Europe.

Sunglass Hut carries about 1,000 styles of sunglasses in each store, including highly visible brands such as Ray Ban, Oakley and Serengeti. It focuses on the fast-growing over-$30 segment of the market and has an average sale price of $77, compared with an industry average of $19.95.

“Whether you end up buying your sunglasses on television, when you’re buying them on mail order, if you’re buying them in the mall, if you’re buying them in a department store, our goal ultimately is one way or another, you’re going to be buying them at Sunglass Hut,” he said.

And no matter how many pairs you buy, you will probably lose them or break them.

“The average person buys somewhere between 40 to 50 pairs of sunglasses over the course of a lifetime. So we want them buying 40 or 50 pairs of sunglasses at an average ticket of $77, not at $19.95,” Chadsey said.

Most of the Miami-based company’s existing stores and kiosks are in shopping malls. The company is increasingly pursuing other high-traffic sites such as theme parks, airports and major hotels.

Its 200-square-foot store in Miami International Airport is already the company’s top seller with $2 million in annual sales.

Sunglass Hut has taken over the sunglass department at Selfridges store in London and is pursuing similar leasing arrangements with other major department stores.

In the last year, it has expanded its private label line, Sun Gear, which sells in the $40-to-$60 range, and added a children’s line that sells in the $25-to-$30 range. The latter is selling well, thanks in part to parental concern about their children’s health.

“A study came into the marketplace a couple of years ago saying kids’ eyes are something like nine times more susceptible to ultraviolet rays than adults,” Chadsey said.

“We want you to go out in the sun,” he said. “We want you to have fun but wear an SPF 15 on your skin to protect yourself and wear a quality pair of sunglasses to protect your eyes.”

Sunglass Hut is also targeting the 55% of the population that wears prescription lenses through a discount lens agreement with Lens Crafters, whose optical shops are in many of the same malls as Sunglass Hut.

Several analysts have issued buy recommendations on its stock, citing the company’s broad selection, well-trained salespeople, volume buying and state-of-the art distribution system that lets it tailor merchandise to fit local demographics.

Sunglass Hut stock was trading at $33.875, down 37 1/2 cents Wednesday on the Nasdaq market. Fittingly enough, the company’s ticker symbol is RAYS.

“They’re going to continue to show very strong same-store sales gains and earnings growth and gain market share,” said Maureen McGrath, who follows the company for Smith Barney Shearson.

“The company has reached a point in terms of developing critical mass so that it definitely has the buying power that nobody else does,” she said.

Acquisitions have become an important part of the company’s growth strategy.

Last year, Sunglass Hut acquired Sun Mark’s 134 outlets. It bought a chain of 18 stores from Wallis Arnold Enterprises Inc. in January and announced plans last month to buy SunVision Inc., a chain of 14 stores in the Northeast.

Although it reported a 1-cent loss per share for 1993, the figures reflected debt retirement that left the company with a clean balance sheet. Adjusted for non-recurring expenses, the 1993 earnings were 84 cents a share.

Wall Street analysts are predicting 1994 earnings of $1.30 a share.

Sunglass Hut already has about 15% of the $2.1-billion non-prescription sunglass market. No competitor has more than 3%.

The company was started by optometrist Sanford Ziff with a single sunglass kiosk in a Miami shopping mall in 1971. It grew to 100 stores by 1987, when Ziff sold 75% of the company to a group of investors.

The Ziff family ran the company until Chadsey was recruited from Dayton Hudson Corp.’s specialty store division in 1990.