Father-son duo who arrived in Australia with $500 create thriving business Ugly Fish Eyewear

A father and son duo who arrived in Australia without knowing a word of English and just $500 to their name have managed to turn the tables.

A father and son duo who arrived in Australia without knowing a word of English and just $500 to their name have managed to turn the tables by creating a flourishing family business.

Faraz Darabi and his dad Manuch arrived in Australia in 1989 to escape the Iranian Revolution, bringing with them everything they could fit into a suitcase, even blankets.

Just seven at the time, Faraz and Manuch settled down in Wollongong, a beachside town south of Sydney.

He watched his father labour away at the local markets seven days a week to eke out a living for the pair.

It was here that Manuch discovered there was no affordable and high-quality fishing sunglasses available and decided to make his own, naming the brand Ugly Fish Eyewear.

Faraz quit his well-paid job at the time to help his dad in the business venture.

“We were the brand that was filling the gaps that no one wanted to do,” Faraz told news.com.au. “We kept identifying niche specific areas.”

Fast forward to today and Ugly Fish Eyewear is in its 20th year of existence and doing better than ever, with their products sold in more than 1500 stores in every Australian state.

They now sell 250,000 units per year and it’s become a national brand and authority on eye protection.

Manuch Darabi arrived in Australia in 1989 with just $500 in his pocket.

Faraz Darabi has taken on the mantle of the business.

“The culture shock, the language shock, was a massive challenge,” Faraz, now 42, recalled. “It was frustrating to be a kid to fit in, I couldn’t speak the language well.”

Manuch had a corporate job in insurance in Iran but his skills were not recognised in Australia so he had to start from scratch, selling food and then glasses at the local Wollongong markets.

He worked so hard that it fell to Faraz to do all the other “domestic things” like cleaning and cooking around the house.

“I had to grow up really fast,” Faraz explained.

“I was working with him on the weekends, that was our way of spending time together.

“He spent 20 years doing nothing but work, I spent nothing but being alone.”

This ultimately paid off, however.

Manuch picked up fishing as a hobby due to his proximity to the coast, but noticed the eyewear range was lacking.

“As you can imagine with us not being very wealthy, he would have to make do with the least expensive fishing gear,” his son said.

“He would go into the fishing stores and he would see they had very premium, expensive eyewear. You only had something that was service station quality, or you were paying $300.

There was nothing mid range. That was the start of it all.”

Ugly Fish Eyewear has just turned 20.

By the time Manuch decided to start manufacturing his own sunglasses, Faraz was 20 and had scored a coveted sales job that paid well while also studying at university.

But he quit to help get the idea off the ground.

“As much as I liked my job at the time, I said yes,” Faraz said.

The pair then developed sunglasses selling in the $50 to $70 range and divided their time between selling in markets in Sydney and Wollongong.

“We became suppliers to the markets. That was our first step into wholesale.”

The family business wanted to take things to the next level and knew they had to break out of the market space to do that.

“The perception was you buy cheap stuff at the markets, not quality stuff, so we stopped going to the markets ourselves and stopped supplying those businesses,” Faraz said.

They then focused on outdoor and fishing stores, but things were still tough.

“The first two or three years of the business, both dad and I were maxed out with the banks,” he said.

“Whatever personal loan amounts the banks would give us, we were maxed out, overdraft, whatever you can think of.”

A year in, they realised they needed to create a brand and trademark their products.

Faraz sketched the Ugly Fish logo at their kitchen table and they stored their products in their home garage.

Manuch’s love of fishing sparked the idea.

Ugly Fish Eyewear then rapidly expanded.

“From a business perspective we started in the outdoor market. Next thing we identified was that there was a real lack of eyewear for motorcyclists,” Faraz said.

This idea had come to Manuch while manning the market stall, with bikers often coming to him asking if he had wraparound glasses so they could use them while riding.

They then expanded even further, into safety eyewear for tradies and industrial workers. Since then, they’ve also delved into eyewear for children, and sunglasses for people with large heads, among others.

This year, Ugly Fish Eyewear hit its 20th anniversary.

And Manuch has, in a well-deserved move, retired, finally able to catch up on some R and R after all these years.

Originally published as Father-son duo who arrived in Australia with $500 create thriving business Ugly Fish Eyewear