Industry | Eye care |
---|---|
Founded | March 1983 |
Founders | E. Dean Butler |
Headquarters | Mason, Ohio, U.S. |
Number of locations | 1,158 |
Areas served | United States Canada Puerto Rico Hong Kong India |
Products | Eyewear, glasses, sunglasses |
Parent | United States Shoe Corporation (1984–1995) Luxottica (1995–2018) EssilorLuxottica (2018-present) |
Website | www |
LensCrafters is an international retailer of prescription eyewear and prescription sunglasses. Its stores usually host independent optometrists on-site or in an adjacent store. The company has its corporate headquarters in Mason, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati in the US.
LensCrafters has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Luxottica (which has since merged with Essilor to form EssilorLuxottica), [1] the largest eyewear company in the world, since 1995. [2] [3] At the end of 2018, Luxottica operated 1,158 LensCrafters stores, of which 1,050 are located in North America and 108 are located in China, Hong Kong and India. [4]
LensCrafters was founded in March 1983 by E. Dean Butler, who had been a manager with Procter & Gamble. [5] [6] [7] [8] Butler first developed the idea for a "while you wait" eyeglass retailer after helping a Procter & Gamble colleague produce television commercials for a family optical business in the late 1970s. [5]
LensCrafters achieved sales of $2 million in its first year of operation [9] before Butler sold the company to the United States Shoe Corporation in 1984. [10] [8] Butler remained as LensCrafters' CEO until 1988. [11]
LensCrafters had just three locations when U.S. Shoe purchased it; by 1989, there were 350 locations, and LensCrafters was generating 40% of U.S. Shoe's operating income. [12]
In 1992, LensCrafters surpassed Pearle Vision to become the largest chain of eyeglass retailers in the United States, with roughly $660 million in annual revenue. [8]
In 1995, Luxottica launched a hostile takeover attempt of United States Shoe CorporationU.S. Shoe, with the goal of acquiring LensCrafters. [13] Luxottica announced in April 1995, that it had reached an agreement to purchase U.S. Shoe for $1.4 billion. [14]
Luxottica acquired Pearle Vision in 2004, combining the country's two largest eyewear retailers. [15] Though most locations can still provide glasses and frames same-day, that line of business has become de-emphasized over time for the luxury market.
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses and spectacles, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms, known as temples or temple pieces that rest over the ears.
Oakley, Inc. is an American company headquartered in Foothill Ranch, California, which is an autonomous subsidiary of Luxottica. 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. As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails its eyewear brands all through its own subsidiaries. The company, presently organized as a subsidiary of EssilorLuxottica which formed when the Italian conglomerate merged with the French optical firm Essilor, is the world's largest company in its industry, both prior to and after its merger with Essilor.
Ray-Ban is a brand of luxury sunglasses and eyeglasses created in 1936 by Bausch & Lomb. The brand is best known for its Wayfarer and Aviator lines of sunglasses. In 1999, Bausch & Lomb sold the brand to Italian eyewear conglomerate Luxottica Group for a reported $640 million.
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.
Leonardo Del Vecchio was an Italian billionaire businessman, the founder and chairman of Luxottica, the world's largest producer and retailer of glasses and frames, with 77,734 employees and over 8,000 stores. At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated at US$24.1 billion, the second richest person in Italy, and 54th in the world.
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.
Essilor International is an international ophthalmic optics company that designs, manufactures and markets lenses to correct or protect eyesight. Its headquarters is in Charenton-le-Pont, France.
Foster Grant, or FosterGrant, is an American brand of eyewear founded by Sam Foster in 1919. The Foster Grant brand is a subsidiary company of FGX International, a consumer goods wholesaler with headquarters in Smithfield, Rhode Island, which has been owned by Essilor, today EssilorLuxottica, since 2010.
Eyewear is a term used to refer to all devices 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.
Hubert Sagnières, is a business executive of French and Canadian nationality. He was chairman and CEO of Essilor International from 2012 to 2018 and became executive vice-chairman of EssilorLuxottica while keeping his role of chairman of Essilor International when Essilor merged with Luxottica in 2018.
Warby Parker Inc. is an American manufacturer and retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, based in New York City. Founded in 2010, it was initially an online-only retailer. It now sells primarily through more than 200 physical retail stores across the U.S. and Canada.
Eyebuydirect, Inc. is an online retailer of prescription glasses, based in Austin, Texas. The company also sells prescription and non-prescription sunglasses, sport sunglasses, and computer glasses designed to reduce glare. Eyebuydirect was founded in 2005 by Roy Hessel, who was succeeded by Sunny Jiang, chief executive officer since 2017. The company has operations in the United States and China, and sells its products worldwide.
Frames Direct is an international online eyewear retailer. The company sells eyewear products such as eyeglasses, prescription sunglasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses through its website, https://www.framesdirect.com. Frames Direct sells designer and brand-name eyewear products with over 50,000 models. Founded in 1996, Frames Direct was one of the earliest online optical retail stores and the first to sell prescription sunglasses online.
GlassesUSA.com is an online retailer of prescription eyewear. It was founded in 2009.
Claudio Del Vecchio is an Italian businessman and billionaire. In April 2023, Forbes estimated his net worth around $3.9 billion.
Clearly is an online retailer of contact lenses, eyeglasses and sunglasses. The company was acquired by EssilorLuxottica Canada, and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. They are one of the largest online contact lens retailers in North America, and the largest seller of prescription eyeglasses online in the world.
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.
Costa Del Mar or simply Costa is an American manufacturer of polarized sunglasses based in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of EssilorLuxottica. Their sunglasses are popular in the sport sunglasses market, and are considered good for outdoor sports practicing, such as Summer activities, recreational fishing and boating. Costa's Baffin Sunglasses won Best of Show: Eyewear at ICAST 2018.
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 designs, produces and markets ophthalmic lenses, optical equipment, prescription glasses and sunglasses.