Well known Australian optical industry figure Mr Mark Van Staveren has passed away after battling cancer. He died on 31 May 2024, two days after his 64th birthday.
As well as being a partner in Victorian eyewear supplier VS Eyewear alongside his brother John, he was an accomplished optical dispenser and owner of Hastings Optical, which he established in 1988 in the namesake regional Victorian town.
He leaves behind his wife Carolyn, sons Alex and Adrian, daughter Tessa, and two grandchildren.
Speaking to Insight, John said his brother did his business with integrity.
“He was always very honest with people – and sometimes to his own detriment. If a certain frame wasn’t performing well, he’d be upfront about it to the practice he’s selling to,” he said.
“He always conducted himself ethically and morally, they were really important values to him.”
Growing up, Mark was the fifth oldest among nine siblings who predominantly grew up in the Melbourne suburb of South Oakleigh.
He spent almost his entire career working in the independent optical sector, except for a brief period during his apprenticeship with SOLA International in Collingwood.
“He worked there for five or so years before working in retail with a couple of independent optometrists, and then he was lured back into wholesale grinding lenses at Smyth & Perkins and setting up their CR-39 laboratory. Back in those days, lenses were made from glass and he got them up and running with plastic,” John said.
“He spent about six years there and then he left in 1988 and started his own Hastings Optical practice in Hastings, Victoria.”
Later in 2002, John was working at Luxottica but wanted to branch out and conduct eyewear wholesaling for the independent sector. Mark had “a few more dollars in his back pocket”, so the brothers joined forces to set up VS Eyewear.
John operated the wholesales business while Mark continued to work in his practice, but it grew to a point that Mark was required to spend time on the road selling frames for VS Eyewear. A manager was put in place to run Hastings Optical.
“He took to it like a duck to water and we moved our operations out of the back of Hastings Optical into our own factory in Carrum Downs. He would get in his car and drive to Cairns and then work his way back and be away for two weeks, or he’d fly to Perth and spend weeks there selling to customers. He liked doing all the interstate work,” John said.
John always respected and looked up to his brother, but also liked his middle name ‘Vincent’. So when he created a new eyewear brand, he named it after his brother: MarcVincent.
“I’m glad I named it after him now that he’s passed because it was our best-selling brand for seven or eight years and I hope the brand continues in his legacy,” John said.
“It represents everything that he was: it’s an honest, exceptional brand that’s colourful and larger than life, like he was.”
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