Leonardo Del Vecchio, an Italian businessman who built the unchallenged global leader in eyeglasses from a small optics studio he began in the Dolomite Mountains, has passed away. He acquired one of the largest fortunes in his nation during this time. He was 87.
Del Vecchio, who was raised in a Milan orphanage, left Milan to open a business in the Alps town of Agordo, north of Venice. From there, his modest supplier of eyeglass frame components grew into a major player, making a string of audacious acquisitions to become EssilorLuxottica, the global market leader. Along the road to the top, Del Vecchio acquired a number of targets, including renowned companies like Oakley and Ray-Ban.
According to the Billionaires Index, the surge made Del Vecchio the second-richest family in Italy, after the Ferrero chocolate family, with a net worth of $25.7 billion as of June 1.
The businessman owned a controlling 32 percent share in EssilorLuxottica, which was created in 2018 when his Luxottica SpA and French lens manufacturer Essilor merged. The business, which also owns brands like Ray-Ban and makes frames for fashion houses like Armani and Prada, has more than 180,000 workers, global operations, and a presence in the luxury and medical technology industries.
Designer Giorgio Armani tweeted, “I’ve lost a friend, first, and a comrade in this long professional experience.” “Your death profoundly hurts me.”
The world’s largest manufacturer of corrective lenses and the largest retailer of eyeglasses in the world, EssilorLuxottica, located in Paris, announced the passing of its chairman on Monday and stated that its board will convene “to discuss future measures.”
Late in the 1960s, Luxottica began manufacturing its own designs, and in the 1980s, Del Vecchio started acquiring US-based businesses. In 1999, he paid $640 million to acquire Ray-Ban.
Del Vecchio claimed that he spent little time with his children in the early years of his career because he “put work before everything else.” He added that he has made up for part of the time missed by spending time with his extended family in Milan or at his properties on France’s Cote d’Azur and the island of Antigua in recent years. “The factory became my true family,” he said.
