Luxottica

Founding of Luxottica Leonardo Del Vecchio started the company in 1961, in Agordo north of Belluno, Veneto; today the company is headquartered in Milan, Italy. The new company was Luxottica s.a.s., a limited partnership with Del Vecchio as one of the founding partners. Vertical integration and acquisitions Convinced of the need for vertical integration, he acquired Scarrone in 1974, a distribution company. The company listed in New York in 1990, and in Milan in December 2000, joining the MIB-30 (now FTSE MIB) index in September 2003. The listing raised money for the company and allowed it to use its shares to acquire other brands, starting with Italian brand Vogue Eyewear in 1990, Persol and LensCrafters in 1995, Ray-Ban from Bausch & Lomb in 1999 and Sunglass Hut in 2001. Luxottica acquired Oakley in November 2007 for US$2.1 billion. Oakley had tried to dispute their prices because of Luxottica's large marketshare, and Luxottica responded by dropping Oakley from their stores, causing their stock price to drop, followed by Luxottica's hostile take over of the company. In August 2011, Luxottica acquired Erroca for €20 million. In March 2014, it was announced that Luxottica would partner with Google on the development of Google Glass and its integration into Luxottica's eyewear. Reorganization and merger with Essilor On 1 September 2014, a new organizational structure was announced, composed of two co-CEOs, one focusing on market development and the other overseeing corporate functions. After the exit of former CEO Andrea Guerra, Enrico Cavatorta was appointed CEO of Corporate Function and Interim CEO of Market (until new and permanent appointment to this role). Cavatorta left the company 40 days after being appointed CEO. In 2016, it was reported that Luxottica had lost its third chief executive in a year and a half, as Cavatora's replacement, Adil Mehboob-Khan stepped down one year after he gained the position. Upon the departure of Mehboob-Khan, Del Vecchio reclaimed executive powers and became much more active in the company. In January 2017, the company agreed to a merger with Essilor.{{Citation == Eyewear brands ==

's Aviators Luxottica's two main product offerings are sunglasses and prescription frames. The company operates in two sectors: manufacturing & wholesale distribution, and retail distribution. The house brands include the following: The company also makes eyewear under license for the following designer labels: These brands are sold in the company's own shops, as well as to independent distributors such as department stores, duty-free shops, and opticians. == Retail ==

Luxottica Retail has about 9,100 retail locations in the United States, Latin America, Canada, India, China, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates. Luxottica is the largest optical retailer in the United States, with 7.3% of US retail sales in 2015. With its merger with Essilor in 2018 the company owns Coastal/Clearly, an online contacts and glasses retail giant bought in 2014 that ships to over 200 countries beside its original North American market. == Medical managed care ==

Luxottica also owns EyeMed Vision Care, a managed vision care organization in the United States. As of 2014, it is the second-largest vision benefits company in the United States. == Philanthropy ==

Luxottica is affiliated with the charitable organization OneSight, formed in 1988. In August 2018, Luxottica restored Accademia Bridge in Venice. In March 2022, EssilorLuxottica announced the launch of the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation to unify the group's philanthropic efforts, primarily providing vision services to underserved communities. == Criticism ==

Monopolistic pricing practices The company has been criticized for the high price of its brand-name glasses, such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, and several others. A 2012 60 Minutes segment focused on whether the company's extensive holdings in the industry were used to keep prices high. Luxottica owns not only a large portfolio of brands (over a dozen) such as Ray-Ban and Oakley but also retailers such as Sunglass Hut, Lenscrafters and Oliver Peoples, the optical departments at Target, and (formerly) Sears, as well as key eye insurance groups including the second largest glasses insurance firm in the US, EyeMed. It has been accused of operating a complete monopoly on the optical industry and overcharging for its products; for example, temporarily dropping then-competitor Oakley from its frame design list, then, when the company stock crashed, purchasing the company, then increasing the prices of its Ray-Ban sunglasses. In addition, it has been argued that, by owning the vision insurance company EyeMed, it also controls part of the buyers' market as well. Euromonitor International estimated that Luxottica's market share was 14% worldwide, with the second-largest company in the industry, Essilor, holding a 13% market share. The third-largest player was Johnson & Johnson, with a 3.9% market share. In October 2018, Luxottica and Essilor merged into a single company, EssilorLuxottica, which now occupies nearly 30% of the global market share and represents almost a billion pairs of lenses and frames sold annually. as has the TruTV series Adam Ruins Everything. In 2019, LensCrafters founder E. Dean Butler spoke to the Los Angeles Times, admitting that Luxottica's dominance of the eyewear industry had resulted in price markups of nearly 1,000%. In the interview, Butler noted "You can get amazingly good frames, with a Warby Parker level of quality, for $4 to $8. For $15, you can get designer-quality frames, like what you'd get from Prada." When told that some eyeglasses cost as much as $800 in the United States, Butler remarked, "I know. It's ridiculous. It's a complete rip-off." == Major shareholders ==

The list of Luxottica shareholders with more than 2% of holdings, December 2014. • Delfin S.à r.l. a company controlled by Leonardo Del Vecchio 66.485% • Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas (as ADR depository) 7.466% • Giorgio Armani 4.955% == See also ==