LensCrafters 2004 Annual Report Download - page 20

ANNUAL REPORT 2004
19
DISTRIBUTION
Cornerstone of Luxottica Group’s leadership, the
distribution structure is one of the most extensive and
effective in the industry.
Luxottica Group’s wholesale distribution network
presently extends to 120 countries across the globe,
with a direct presence in the 28 most important
markets. The retail division, on the other hand, is
mainly present in North America and Asia Pacific,
ensuring the best, most efficient product distribution in
the world’s most important optical and sun markets.
Luxottica Group controls over 5,500 optical and sun
stores (company-owned, in franchising and through
the licensed brand model) primarily in North America,
Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. In
Europe, Luxottica Group’s retail presence is limited to
approximately 100 stores of the Sunglass Hut chain,
specializing in sunglasses and largely concentrated in
the United Kingdom.
This distribution structure is the result of the Group’s
fundamental strategic intuition; management
understood years ago that increasing participation to
retail distribution would increase opportunities for
development. As a result, from its origins as a
manufacturer of frames, Luxottica Group has
increasingly integrated wholesale distribution into its
structure, and since 1995, retail distribution as well.
Thanks to its extensive distribution network, the Group
is now present in all of the world’s most important
markets for both wholesale and retail. At the same
time, the Group closely monitors the development of
new markets with the greatest growth potential, ready
to intervene and consolidate its distribution presence
in response to significant developments.
RETAIL
Luxottica Group’s retail division manages the
LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut, Sears
Optical, Target Optical, BJ’s Optical retail brands as
well as those of OPSM Group.
In North America, Luxottica Group is the leader in
optical retail sales, in both the prescription and sun
segments.
Sunglass Hut is the world’s leading specialty sun retail
chain with 1,858 stores primarily in North America and
Australasia.
Finally, OPSM Group ensures the Group’s leadership
in Asia Pacific: Australia, New Zealand and Hong
Kong.
2004 was an especially positive year, both in terms of
performance of the chains already controlled by the
Group, such as LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut and
OPSM Group, as well as the expansion of the retail
distribution network in the U.S. with the acquisition of
Cole National.
With this operation, Luxottica Group’s presence in the
North American market was not only strengthened in
terms of number of retail outlets, but also in overall reach
and balance. Today Luxottica Group manages the two
most important optical retail chains in the industry in
North America (LensCrafters and Pearle Vision) and is
the leading operator of licensed brands optical
departments, a segment in which it formerly had no
presence. Furthermore, through the new EyeMed Vision
Care, Luxottica Group is today the second largest
administrator of managed vision care programs, an
increasingly important segment in the U.S. optical sector.