Companies, Financial, Stock Exchange, Italian eyewear, World Primacy, 90% Export for 3.7 billion euros total
The Italian eyewear sector is confirmed as the first in the world, above all thanks to exports.
With a largely inactive trade balance (2,484 million euro for the export-import balance), Italy also confirms its leadership in the global eyewear sector in 2017.
A success largely achieved thanks to exports, for which 90% of production is destined, for a total of 3.7 billion euro, with a growth of + 3.2% (2017), according to the latest data from Anfao (National Association) Manufacturers of Optical Articles).
The most “loyal” glasses made in Italy? Europeans and Americans, which respectively account for 50% and 31.5% of the sector’s exports.
Luxottica and Safilo, the two giants
Thinking of the companies that dot the sector, the most important name is undoubtedly that of Luxottica, the first Italian reality in the field of fashion by turnover and since 2000 listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, which boasts over 9 billion euros in revenues thanks to work of 80 thousand employees worldwide.
Among the most recent operations, we can not forget the acquisition of the Salmoiraghi & Viganò chain of stores and the integration with the French Essilor, world leader in the production of ophthalmic lenses: this merger brought the aggregate turnover of the colossus to 15 billion of Euro.
Another major player in the sector is Safilo, also listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, the world’s second largest producer after Luxottica, with a turnover of 1 billion and 7 thousand employees.
Among his brands we find atelier brands (Elie Saab and Oxydo), fashion luxury (Dior, Celine, Fendi), contemporary fashion and lifestyle (Tommy Hilfiger, Pierre Cardin, but also Carrera and Smith), and mass / cool (Havaianas and Swatch) and the aforementioned Polaroid).
Linked to its Venetian origins and to an “artisan” vision of the product, it includes among its most recent ideas the “Safilo Product School”, an apprenticeship system that combines on-the-job training, classroom lessons and individual coaching. The aim is to form the increasingly rare figure of “master occhialaio”, celebrating its dexterity.
Lozza, the oldest Italian brand
A curiosity: the most important factories of the main Italian producers – Luxottica and Safilo in the lead – are in the Belluno area. It is no coincidence, then, that precisely in these parts, in Longarone, in 1878 Lozza was born, the oldest Italian eyewear brand. Part of the Veneto group De Rigo since 1983, Lozza has recently celebrated its 140th anniversary: for the occasion, a limited edition of Titanium was born, an iconic model born in the 40s and Oscar of fashion in the 60s.
And in the area there is also the headquarters of Marcolin Group, 440 million in turnover and about 1,700 employees. Concentrated exclusively on the creation and production of glasses, it does not have chains of opticians, neither in Italy nor abroad. Among the brands with which it collaborates, in addition to the successful case history of Tom Ford Eyewear, there are Diesel, Guess and Swarovski and has recently been signed a partnership with the luxury French giant Lvmh, which has brands such as Bulgari and Giorgio Fedon, quality glasses case
But there is not only the Belluno district. In addition to the historical names just mentioned, there are companies that are increasingly cutting space even outside the Veneto borders: for example Nau !, a reality born in 2004 in Castiglione Olona, in the province of Varese, which is part of the ELITE program of Borsa Italiana : 35 million turnover in 2017 (+ 16% compared to the previous year) and 22 new stores, of which 18 in Italy.
And the glasses, let’s not forget, buy more value if worn with a spectacle holder at the height: this is what Giorgio Fedon thinks, a company listed on AIM Italia, an international leader in the production and marketing of eyeglasses and accessories for the optical sector and active in the leather goods and office articles sectors (about 70 million annual turnover and location, in the province of Belluno).
26 Apr 2018
The Van
Source Borsa Italiana
