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Company type | Société Anonyme |
---|---|
Industry | Medical equipment |
Founded | 1849 (as Essel) 1 January 1972 (as Essilor) |
Headquarters | Charenton-le-Pont, France |
Key people | Anatole Temkine René Grandperret Bernard Maitenaz Xavier Fontanet Hubert Sagnières |
Products | Corrective lenses; sun and readers eyeglasses; GOGGLES4U UK ophthalmic equipment and instruments |
Brands | Varilux, Clearly, Eyebuydirect, Foster Grant, Vision Source, Xiamen Yarui Optical (50%) |
Number of employees | 69,000 (2020) |
Parent | EssilorLuxottica |
Website | essilor |
Footnotes / references #Brands - Citation: https://www.essilor.com/en/our-brand-sites/ ; Retrieved: 19 August 2020. |
Essilor International is an international ophthalmic optics company that designs, manufactures and markets lenses to correct or protect eyesight.[1] Its headquarters is in Charenton-le-Pont (near Paris), France.
It is the world's largest manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses.[2] The firm is responsible for creating Varilux, the world's first progressive lens, which corrects presbyopia and allows clear vision in the wearer's near, intermediate and far vision.[1][3] The company formed from the merger of ophthalmic firms Essel and Silor in 1972.[4]
In January 2017 Essilor announced a merger with Italian eyewear giant Luxottica, in which Essilor would acquire the Italian eyewear company while Luxottica executive chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio would become co-executive chairman of the company.[1][5] On 1 October 2018, the new holding company EssilorLuxottica was born, resulting in combined market capitalization of approximately €57 billion.[6]