Couple raise glasses to growing business

At Monument’s Maxx Sunglasses, the future’s so bright, they’ve got to wear shades. And, fortunately for owners Rick and Nancy Milner, there’s a pair or two around the office.

The Milners got into the sunglasses business in 2000, owning and operating a small fleet of display trailers they would set up on a corner somewhere and sell sunglasses directly to passers-by. However, since focusing on a line of “high definition” sunglasses aimed at golfers, motorcyclists, anglers and other outdoor-sports enthusiasts in 2005, and switching to a distribution model built on reaching thousands of pro shops and small retailers, business has exploded, Rick Milner said.

“Sunglasses looked like a good business — everybody uses them,” he said. “We’ve built a very substantial wholesale business.”

In the beginning, Nancy Milner packed orders in the kitchen, and Rick Milner’s desk was a picnic table. Now, Maxx Sunglasses employs 26 people at its headquarters in a modest office park in Monument and business is growing at more than 30 percent a year, Rick Milner said. Sales are projected to hit $4.5 million this year. That’s more than 600,000 pairs of sunglasses.

“Our business is growing at a really nice rate,” he said. “We’re going to hire about 30 more people next year.”

Earlier this year, Maxx inked deals to sell sunglasses in the Rockies Dugout stores and at Invesco Field at Mile High. Seeing a Maxx advertisement at Coors Field was a thrill, Milner said.

“As you’re getting there, you never think about that’s where you’re going,” he said, “and then you’re in a box at the stadium and watching your advertisement on the JumboTron.”

The sunglasses are made in China, while Maxx focuses on distribution, sales and service. The key is delivering a lens that offers quality at a low cost.

“It’s a product we can take to the public and say, ‘This is a high-quality lens and it only costs $20,’” Milner said. “I hate to use the word ‘cheap,’ but $20 isn’t a lot.”

Maxx has stuck with pro shops and small retailers deliberately, Milner said, preferring more than 11,000 small accounts to pinning the company’s future on a handful of giant orders from big chains (the company also sells glasses on its website). A typical order could be as small as two dozen pairs, and the average customer reorders 10 to 15 times a year.

“That’s why my banker loves me,” Milner said. “He goes, ‘You’ve got 8,500 customers, I know you’re not going out of business.”

Dave Van Ness, executive director of the  Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce, said Maxx has been a quiet success story.

“I didn’t even know they existed six months ago,” he said. “They’re just sort of tucked away back there.”

And the company’s sunglasses?

“My wife thinks they’re the best thing since sliced bread,” Van Ness said.

At the Maxx offices, the space is divided about equally between the sales and support staff and warehouse space. Rick and Nancy Milner have their offices across the hall from each other, and their bearded collies, Dulcinea and Pedals, wander freely.

The Milners’ son, Bret, works in the family business (they have three other children who don’t) and, Rick Milner said, “is practically running the whole place now.”

In the early days, Milner would get up early and start calling pro shops on the East Coast about 5 a.m., because golf pros get started early.

“I used to joke with him, ‘No breakfast for you until you get five sales,’” Nancy Milner said.

She adds that he never skipped breakfast.

“It wasn’t, ‘Will this work?’” Nancy Milner said. “Every day it worked better than the day before, so it worked.”
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