Luxottica and Essilor Form a Joint-Venture for the Australian and New Zealand Markets

USA - English

• USA - English
• USA - English
• USA - English

MILAN, Italy and CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France, February 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Luxottica Group (MTA: LUX; NYSE: LUX), a leader in the design, manufacturing and distribution of premium fashion, luxury and sports eyewear, and Essilor International (NYSE Euronext: EI), the world leader in ophthalmic lenses, announced today that the two companies have formed a long-term joint-venture for the Australian and New-Zealand markets.

Under the terms of the agreement, the joint-venture will manage Eyebiz Pty Limited, Luxottica's Sydney-based optical lens finishing laboratory, which, as a result of this alliance, will be majority-controlled by Essilor.

Eyebiz will continue to supply all of Luxottica's retail optical outlets in Australia and New Zealand: OPSM, Budget Eyewear and Laubman & Pank.

The Eyebiz management team will remain in place and report to the new Board comprised of Essilor International and Luxottica representatives.

About Luxottica Group

Luxottica Group is a leader in premium fashion, luxury and sports eyewear, with over 6,200 optical and sun retail stores in North America, Asia-Pacific, China, South Africa and Europe and a strong and well balanced brand portfolio. Luxottica's key house brands include Ray-Ban, the best known sun eyewear brand in the world, Oakley, Vogue, Persol, Oliver Peoples, Arnette and REVO, while license brands include Bvlgari, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Donna Karan, Polo Ralph Lauren, Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tiffany and Versace. In addition to a global wholesale network covering 130 countries, the Group manages leading retail brands such as LensCrafters and Pearle Vision in North America, OPSM and Laubman & Pank in Australasia, LensCrafters in Greater China and Sunglass Hut globally. The Group's products are designed and manufactured in six Italy-based manufacturing plants, two wholly-owned plants in China and a sports sunglass production facility in the U.S. In 2009, Luxottica Group posted consolidated net sales of EUR5.1 billion. Additional information on the Group is available at http://www.luxottica.com.

About Essilor

Essilor International is the world leader in ophthalmic optical products, offering a wide range of lenses under the flagship Varilux(r), Crizal(r), Essilor(r), Definity(r) and Xperio(TM) brands to correct myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and presbyopia. Essilor operates worldwide through a broad network of mass-production facilities, lens finishing laboratories and local distribution subsidiaries. The Essilor share trades on the Euronext Paris market and is included in the CAC 40 index. Codes and symbols: ISIN: FR 0000121667; Reuters: ESSI.PA; Bloomberg: EI:FP.

    Luxottica media and investor relations contacts:

    Ivan Dompe
    Group Corporate Communications Director
    Tel: +39(02)8633-4726
    Email: [email protected]

    Luca Biondolillo
    SVP, International Corporate Communications
    Tel:    +1-516-918-3100
    Mobile: +1-917-518-4203
    Email: [email protected]

    http://www.luxottica.com

    Alessandra Senici
    Group Investor Relations Director
    Tel: +39(02)8633-4718
    Email: [email protected]


    Essilor investor relations and financial communications:

    Veronique Gillet,
    SVP, Investor Relations

    Sebastien Leroy
    Manager, Financial communications
    Tel: +33-1-49-77-42-16
    Email: [email protected]

    http://www.essilor.com

SOURCE Essilor