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Bright Eyes Sunglasses is a company that was established in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, by Robert and Antonina (Ann) Johnstone, in 1985. [1] By 1995, the chain included 115 stores. [1] In 1997 the franchise was sold to Ian Thomas, a Cairns property developer. Ian Thomas reduced the stores from 112 to 85 removing the unprofitable stores strengthening the brand and growing the gross profit of the group by 50%.[ citation needed ]
In 2000, Bright Eyes was sold to a consortium of three businessmen: Geoff Harbert, Graham Bradshaw, and Ralph Edwards. [1] By 2003, 10 franchise stores and 19 company-owned stores. [1] The full chain's 2003 turnover reached A$6.7 million. [1] Harbert stated in 2004 that some stores were expanding their product lines, in order to remain profitable. [2]
The company having grown to 155 stores, 1/3 of which company run, eventually came under the control of Oakley, Inc., [3] which was itself purchased by Luxottica in 2007, transferring ownership of the chain to Luxottica. [3] The takeover resulted in Luxottica becoming "by far the biggest eyewear chain in Australia." [4]
In 2008 Luxottica having reduced the business to 47 stores, sold the business back to business partners Ralph Edwards and Geoff Harbert.
7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas and owned by Japanese Seven & I Holdings through Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. After Ito-Yokado, a Japanese supermarket chain and the parent company of Seven-Eleven Japan, acquired a 70% stake in the company in 1991, the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan in November, 2005.
Ralphs is an American supermarket chain in Southern California. The largest subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Kroger, it is the oldest such chain west of the Mississippi River. Kroger also operates stores under the Food 4 Less and Foods Co. names in California.
Oakley, Inc. is an American company headquartered in Foothill Ranch, California, which is an autonomous subsidiary of EssilorLuxottica. The company designs, develops and manufactures sports performance equipment and lifestyle pieces including sunglasses, safety glasses, eyeglasses, sports visors, ski/snowboard goggles, watches, apparel, backpacks, shoes, optical frames, and other accessories. Most items are designed in house at their head office, but some countries hold exclusive designs relevant to their market. Oakley currently holds more than 600 patents for eyewear, materials, and performance gear.
Luxottica Group S.p.A. is an Italian eyewear conglomerate based in Milan which is the world's largest eyewear company. As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails its eyewear brands all through its own subsidiaries.
OPSM is a retailer of eye glasses in Australia and New Zealand, with locations in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. It is owned by EssilorLuxottica, a French-Italian eyewear conglomerate.
Kohl's is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. As of December 2021 it is the largest department store chain in the United States, with 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawaii. The company was founded by Polish immigrant Maxwell Kohl, who opened a corner grocery store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1927. It went on to become a successful chain in the local area, and in 1962 the company branched out by opening its first department store. British American Tobacco Company took a controlling interest in the company in 1972 while still managed by the Kohl Family, and in 1979, the corporation was sold to BATUS Inc. A group of investors purchased the company in 1986 from British American Tobacco and took it public in 1992.
British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, was a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to expand into furniture, electronics, entertainment, convenience groceries and fragrance and beauty products.
Rexall was a chain of American drugstores, and the name of their store-branded products. The stores, having roots in the federation of United Drug Stores starting in 1903, licensed the Rexall brand name to as many as 12,000 drug stores across the United States from 1920 to 1977. The "Rex" in the name was derived from the name of Ellen M. Regis, who developed "Rexall remedies" and from whom the company purchased the mark.
Whitbread plc is a British multinational hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England.
Pearle Vision is an American chain of eye care stores. It is one of the largest franchised optical retailers in North America. The company was acquired by Luxottica, an Italian eyewear company, in 2004. As of December 31, 2018, Pearle Vision operated 110 corporate stores and had 419 franchises throughout North America.
Rax Roast Beef is a regional U.S. fast food restaurant chain specializing in roast beef sandwiches. The company has been through many iterations, declaring bankruptcy more than once, rising to as many as 504 locations in 38 U.S. states in the 1980s and falling to fewer than 20 locations on more than one occasion. As of 2022, Rax is based in Ironton, Ohio, and has fewer than ten franchisee-owned restaurants still in operation.
Eyewear is a term used to refer to all accessories worn over both of a person's eyes, or occasionally a single eye, for one or more of a variety of purposes. Though historically used for vision improvement and correction, eyewear has also evolved into eye protection, for fashion and aesthetic purposes, and starting in the late 20th century, computers and virtual reality.
Domino's Pizza Enterprises Limited (DPE) is the largest pizza chain in Australia in terms of network stores numbers and network sales, as well as the largest franchisee for the US Domino's Pizza brand in the world. DPE is the exclusive master franchise for the Domino's brand network in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark and Taiwan. Across these markets, DPE has over 2,800 stores. In May 2005 DPE became the first publicly listed pizza company in Australia.
NightOwl Convenience Stores is a franchised system of convenience stores operating in Australia - predominantly in the state of Queensland.
Casual Corner was an American retail clothing chain founded in 1950. It operated stores under the names Casual Corner, Petite Sophisticate and August Max Woman brands, among others, with more than 525 stores at its peak.
The James Pascoe Ltd Group of Companies is a privately owned New Zealand retail group with holdings across New Zealand and Australia. JPG owns and operates chains Pascoes the Jewellers, Stewart Dawsons and Goldmark ; department store Farmers ; homeware retailer Stevens; and bookshop Whitcoulls in New Zealand. The group's three Australian businesses are jewellers Prouds the Jewellers, Angus & Coote and Goldmark, with over 460 stores across Australia as of 2012. Goldmark is the only brand operating in both countries.
The United States Shoe Corporation was a retailing conglomerate headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, that operated several retail chains and brands mostly in the fields of shoes, clothing and optical. Most notably, U.S. Shoe was the parent company of optical retailer LensCrafters from 1984 until its own acquisition by Luxottica in 1995.
EssilorLuxottica SA is an Italian-French vertically integrated multinational corporation based in Paris and founded on 1 October 2018 from the merger of the Italian Luxottica with the French Essilor. The eyewear-focused group group designs, produces and markets ophthalmic lenses, optical equipment, prescription glasses and sunglasses.
Transform SR Brands LLC is an American privately held company formed on February 11, 2019, to acquire some of the assets of Sears Holdings Corporation. The new company is owned by ESL Investments. Following the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Sears Holdings on October 15, 2018, Transformco purchased the surviving assets owned by Sears Holdings for $5.2 billion.