This Orphan Built a $116 Billion Empire Without You Noticing

“This formula means that when you and I walk into a LensCrafters, or a Sunglass Hut, or a David Clulow, or an Octacost Carol, which has 950 branches in Brazil, or a Zulang glasses in Shanghai, or a Ming Long store in Hong Kong, around 80% of the frames on displ…”

“With its own designers, lasers, and massive machines, Luxottica can take a pencil sketch to global production in about three weeks.”

“Luxottica has around 27,000 models in production at any one time. Its plants turn out 400,000 pairs of frames per day.”

“Ray-Ban is now the most valuable optical brand in the world, and it generates more than two billion a year in sales for Luxottica.”

“Over the next year and a half, Luxottica withdrew Ray-Ban from 13,000 outlets, hiked their prices, and radically improved the quality, increasing the layers of lacquer on a pair of Wayfarers from two to 31.”

“While opticians might sell frames for two or three times their wholesale price, it is the lenses where they make the most money, charging markups of 700 or 800% to their customers.”

“Sunglass Hut stopped selling Oakley's. Sunglass Hut accounted for a quarter of Oakley's business and its share price fell by 37%.”

“Essilor controls almost half of the world's prescription lens business and has acquired more than 250 other companies in the past 20 years.”

“Around 1.4 billion people use their products.”

“Mark Zuckerberg, just spent three and a half billion dollars buying a three percent stake in Essilor Luxottica.”

“And before he died, Delvecchio did the deal with Mark Zuckerberg to produce the glasses that Meta's making.”

“In 1961, Delvecchio invest 500,000 lira for 33% of the company. So that's about 6000 euros today. So he puts in 6000 euros for 33% of this company. 60 years later. His shares will be worth twenty five billion euros from 6000 euros to twenty five billion in 60 …”

“Every day of the fair, there is so much demand. That Luxottica increases the price every day within three days, their prices triple.”

“By the time the fair is over, they have gathered orders. For two years of production, and they have no idea how they're going to keep up with all these requests.”

“He buys 50% of his largest American distributor for eleven million dollars at a time when his entire company is just doing a fourteen million in revenue.”

“So this is where he signs that agreement and he insists to get five percent of the company. Delvecchio wisely gives him five percent of the company. Why is that important? Because Armani is another turning point for Delvecchio. Armani glasses alone. This is a …”

“He launches a surprise hostile to offer to buy the U S shoe corporation, which owns lens crafters, which is the largest optical store chain in the world. U S shoe. This is the nutty part was a conglomerate. That had a stock market value five times higher. Thei…”

“They're still doing five hundred million a year in revenue, but they're losing fifty million a year.”

“He now sells more than 10 times the amount of Ray-Bans as when he bought the company.”

“Now, what was fascinating is when this deal comes together, it's announced Luxottica and Essilor have reached a fifty billion euro merger agreement. The world's largest lens manufacturer is tying the knot with its absolute leader in frames and eyewear sales.”

“He says, I follow the performance of our 1500 reps every day.”