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This excerpt taken from the LUX 6-K filed May 12, 2009. PROFILE
With net sales of Euro 5.2 billion in 2008, over 60,000 employees and a solid global presence, Luxottica is a world leader in premium, luxury and sports eyewear.
Founded in 1961 by Leonardo Del Vecchio, the Group is now a vertically integrated organization whose manufacturing of prescription and sun frames is backed by a wide-reaching wholesale distribution network and a retail distribution network comprising over 6,250 retail locations, mostly in North America, Asia-Pacific and China.
Product design, development and manufacturing takes place in six production facilities in Italy, two wholly-owned factories in the People’s Republic of China and a sports sunglasses production facility in California, USA. Luxottica also has a small plant in India, serving the local market. In 2008, production reached approximately 50 million units, of which around 10 million were produced by the newly acquired Oakley production facility.
Luxottica products are outstanding in terms of design and quality and are known all around the world thanks to a strong and well-balanced brand portfolio. House brands include Ray-Ban, the world’s best known sun brand, Oakley, Vogue, Persol, Oliver Peoples, Arnette and REVO, while its license brands include Bvlgari, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Donna Karan, Polo Ralph Lauren, Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tiffany and Versace.
The Group’s wholesale distribution, comprising 130 countries across five continents, has 23 logistics centers and 30 commercial branches providing direct operations in key markets. Penetration in emerging markets and in new channels of distribution, such as shopping centers, airports and railway stations, is particularly significant.
Direct wholesale operations are complemented by one of the world’s most extensive optical retail networks. Luxottica is a leader in the prescription eyewear business in North America with its LensCrafters and Pearle Vision chains, in Asia-Pacific with OPSM, Laubman & Pank and Budget Eyewear, and in China with LensCrafters. In the sun business, the Group operates around 2,300 retail locations in North America, Asia-Pacific, South Africa, Europe and the Middle East, mainly through the Sunglass Hut brand.
In North America, the world’s largest prescription eyewear market in terms of sales, Luxottica also operates licensed brand points of sale, with over 1,200 stores under the Target Optical and Sears Optical brands. In addition, Luxottica is one of the primary managed vision care operators in North America, through EyeMed, and the second biggest lens finisher, having a network of seven central laboratories and over 900 labs inside LensCrafters stores.
Lastly, control of the Oakley brand, a global icon in optics for performance, provides a powerful presence in both the market as a whole and in the sport channel, in which Luxottica Group operates at both a wholesale level and through the single-brand O Stores retail chain.
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