A tale of two giants: Luxottica and Essilor

摘要

Without a doubt Luxottica and Essilor are two of the strongest, most successful companies in the optical world. They have proven that the optical business can be a very profitable enterprise. Both have grown from small beginnings in basic manufacturing. Essilor began as Silor, a French lens manufacturer, and Luxottica as a small Italian frame maker. Today they both dominate their particular areas of the optical business. How did they get there? What are their winning strategies? What does the future hold? Luxottica, a company built with the hard work and brilliance of a single man, employed Italian design and quality workmanship in the Cadore mountain area of Italy to establish itself as a frame manufacturer of styles that the market loved. It built a reputation at a time when the frame industry was fragmented and European styles were dominated by expensive German and French designs. Metal and combination metal and plastic frames, that were basically large eye sizes and heavy material, gave way to lighter more colourful designs. Luxottica saw an opportunity and had the economic advantage of Italian labour as well as Italian work-manship and design. With these beginnings as a spring-board, Luxottica captured some of the most influential and well-known designer names, producing frames under licence to a whole bevy of famous designer brands. Armani, until recently, was its flagship brand (now in DeRigo's catalogue of brands). Not satisfied with its success as a manufacturer of frames, Luxottica embarked on a strategy of owning its marketplace. It made an investment in the single largest retail optical market, the United States, in 1995 buying Lenscrafters, founded by Dean Butler and owned by US Shoe. Lenscrafters at the time was the second largest chain of US retail (dispensing) optical stores.