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Essilor executives detail benefits of Luxottica merger
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NEW YORK –The merger of Essilor and Luxottica is expected to be approved at the end of the year, “then we enter the operational phase of the combination,” Essilor of America President Eric Leonard said during a company-sponsored press conference here at Vision Expo East.
“We have to create a platform to [put] vision at the top of the agenda,” he said. “Our vision is improving lives by improving sight.”
Leonard shared three objectives: finding a solution for the 2.5 billion people in the world with a vision problem and no access to vision correction; providing technical solutions to the 7.2 billion people in the world who need to better protect their eyes; and ensuring that people have the right solution, whether it is progressive lenses for presbyopes or the right photochromic lenses.
Leonard said another goal is to make the supply chain more efficient.
“There’s a lot of waste,” he said. “Two frames are manufactured and one is sold.”
In addition, “our product takes 1 or 2 weeks to receive,” he said. “What kind of other product takes that long? We have to recognize when things are not working and need to be changed.”
Large industries are being disrupted, Daniel Liberman, senior vice president of strategic initiatives for Essilor, said at the press conference. He used taxi vs. Uber, hotels vs. Airbnb, independent booksellers and pharmacies, and airlines as examples.
“What happens if we don’t move?” he asked.
The mobile phone industry has shown that the biggest winners are the premium players, he said.
“With Essilor and Luxottica, we both have a history of focusing on premium, in different areas,” Liberman continued. “Together, we’re not only continuing to move along in separate verticals, but what are the opportunities in R&D to expand the industry in wearables and other areas?”
Other winners in the industry organize around efficiency and capability, he added.
“Ace Hardware is a great example, where independents came together to create efficiency,” he said. “One of the other things you may be seeing is us investing in the doctor alliances. We will work with our independent partners to create efficiency and enhance their capabilities.”
Liberman said the company undertook research to find why eye care providers conduct 70% of the eye exams but capture only 46% of eyeglass sales and found it was because consumers could not find the frame they were looking for.
The frame may have never been in the office, may have been sold yesterday or simply could not be found, he said, pointing to an opportunity to develop systems to benefit everyone.
Howard Purcell, Essilor senior vice president of customer development, said the lens and the frame are a package, but “we’ve innovated lenses and frames separately. Now we can innovate together.
“We’ve got to do a better job to deliver eye wear in a more efficient way,” he continued. “The way I see it, 8 weeks ago we had nothing to say about what happens in the Luxottica world, and vice versa. Now we have a voice to have some input into that. There’s a real science around selecting the type of frames for your particular patient population.”
Carl Bracy, chief marketing officer for Essilor, outlined three major changes.
“We no longer look at consumers as one large group,” he said. “We segment them into groups that have different visual needs. We’re conducting virtual reality testing in order to rapidly prototype these environments. You need to see quickly how consumers react. Scale is critical to deliver this rapid prototyping. Last is in-home testing. Consumers can’t articulate what their needs are; we have to observe them and see what they have issues with.”
Bracy said over the next few weeks the company plans to launch Varilux X, which is an upgrade to Varilux S.
“Today your eyes are darting around in the near zone and from place to place,” Bracy said. “Your visual needs are changing very rapidly. There’s a lot of head bobbing or neck craning. Varilux X solves that problem, with multiple focal points within the same gaze zone. Instead of doing the neck bob to find your zone, you can find your focal point within the same gaze point.”
He said the technology was “perfected by 1,500 user-wearer tests.”
Bracy also said that within the next few weeks Essilor will announce its prototype testing with smart frames “to capture your daily visual experiences so you can live a more healthy, productive life.” – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO
Disclosures: Bracy, Leonard, Liberman and Purcell are employed by Essilor of America.