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Varga Art Crystal has been available in the U.S. for eight
years and in that time the line has developed mightily from its old-world
European stylings to a more Americanized-appropriate appeal. Long lauded for
quality precision engraving, the Budapest-based business now carries collections
that are proving attractive to U.S. retailers and consumers. Tim DeVine noticed
Varga’s potential from the start and began distributing the line in 1997. "I
recognized great skill," the tabletop veteran begins, "and knew if we headed in
a different design direction there was real opportunity." DeVine divined time
was needed to coddle and develop this rare resource, and was willing to go the
course. Eight years ago, he remarked in an interview, "There’s no doubt in my
mind the brand will attract an eager, albeit exclusive, audience."
As he has proven time and again, DeVine was right. "Once we
got the design direction established with the introduction of Springtime –
which was dead on and is still our best-selling pattern – they took the bull
by the horns and continued in a wonderful direction." The ‘they’ DeVine
references is the entire Varga family of four. Sandor – patriarch and founder –
is a craftsman par excellence. His skilled hand and intense workaholic devotion
– 12 hour days, seven day weeks are the norm – has been the guiding and driving
force of the company he founded in 1976. His wife, Ildiko, brings the business
sense, super savvy at strengthening, growing, and promoting the eponymous named
enterprise. Their sons – Sandor, Jr. and Akos – are composites of their folks.
Sandor, Jr.’s creative bent and adroit design direction put him second in
command to his father. Akos’ charm, infectious smile, and entrepreneurial wiles
place him as managing director. It’s a qualified quartet that have propelled
annual sales increases to 20% a year, 36% this first quarter alone. "You ask
what separates them from the crowd," DeVine counters. "It’s simple. The skills
that this company has are in short supply today. There’s nothing comparable in
the market to Varga. The look is unique and the style is entirely different from
competing French companies."
While this is, no doubt, a family affair, even the family
credits Sandor’s artistic genius as the matter that fuels Varga’s thrusters. "Sandor
inherited great talent," Ildiko says. "He never stops something until he does it
to perfection." Akos, who joined the company when he was just 17 in 1992,
reveals, "I loved to watch my father work. I was in the studio since I was a
little kid and I would sit and watch him. It was always so fascinating." While
his masterly gifts seem innate, Sandor has always toiled ceaselessly to improve.
It started when he was just 11 and although he studied cutting and engraving at
Budapest Art University and worked as an apprentice Sandor, for the most part,
is self-taught and showed extreme promise from the start. This glass maestro has
the uncommon talent of being capable of recreating even the most detailed
designs by sight.
Sandor is a third generation glass master. His grandfather,
Geza, started a small crystal factory in the 1930s which was seized by the
Russians during their siege of Hungary in 1945. Sandor, who used to watch his
grandfather work, was a sponge soaking up his grandfather’s pedagogy. In 1976,
Sandor started his own cutting and engraving business from his basement with
Ildiko – then a medical student – during a political regime that taxed
businesses at a 75% rate and banned exports. Ildiko, hailing from a family of
overachievers, switched to business school to operate the fledgling company.
Ildiko’s strong business sense propelled Varga Art Crystal to be one of
Hungary’s first companies to export, in the late ’70s, and with the toppling of
communism a decade later, the business finally found firmer footing.
continued . . . .
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