LensCrafters 2012 Annual Report Download - page 49

472.6 DISTRIBUTION
Luxottica’s optical retail operations are anchored by leading brands such as LensCrafters
and Pearle Vision in North America, OPSM and Laubman & Pank throughout Australia
and New Zealand and GMO in Latin America. The Group also has a retail presence in
China, where it operates in the premium eyewear market with LensCrafters. Due to the
fragmented nature of the European retail market, the Company does not operate optical
retail stores in Europe outside of the United Kingdom, where it operates a network of more
than 80 David Clulow stores, selling both prescription and sun products. As of December
31, 2012, Luxottica’s optical retail business consisted of 3,864 retail locations globally.
LENSCRAFTERS
LensCrafters is currently the largest optical retailer in North America in terms of sales.
Usually located in high-traffic commercial malls and shopping centers, the stores offer a
wide array of premium prescription frames and sunglasses, mostly made by Luxottica, but
also a wide range of high-quality lenses and optical products made by other suppliers.
LensCrafters was founded in 1983 with the idea of providing customers with a pair of
quality glasses in about an hour, which today represents a key feature of LensCrafters’
customer service model. Most stores in North America have onsite either an independent
or an employed doctor of optometry and a fully equipped, state-of-the-art lens laboratory
that is able to craft, surface, finish and fit lenses in about one hour. As part of its underlying
commitment to customer satisfaction and industry innovation, over the last couple of
years, LensCrafters has further invested in technology to enable a distinctive signature
customer experience by including the AccuFit Digital Measurement™ technology, which
provides a lens fit with five times greater precision than traditional methods, and the anti-
reflective coating capability at in-store labs, further enhancing the “one hour service”
concept.
In 2006, Luxottica began to expand the LensCrafters brand in China by rebranding the
stores, which were acquired through the acquisition of three retail chains in Beijing,
Shanghai, Guangdong and Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of China’s most significant
luxury markets, and launching LensCrafters as a premium brand in Hong Kong was
important for increasing awareness and consumer demand for Luxottica’s products and
services in the region.
As of December 31, 2012, the Group operated a retail network of 1,178 LensCrafters
stores, of which 968 are in North America and the other 210 stores are in China and Hong
Kong.
PEARLE VISION
Acquired by Luxottica in 2004, Pearle Vision is one of the largest optical retail chains in
North America. LensCrafters and Pearle Vision’s positioning is complementary. Pearle
Vision focuses on the factors that made the brand a success: customers’ trust in the doctor’s
experience and the quality of service they receive, which made Pearle Vision the “Home
of Trusted Eyecare” for generations of Americans. Pearle Vision is expanding through
franchising and is one of the largest franchise systems in optical retailing. As of December
31, 2012, Pearle Vision operated 266 corporate stores and had 356 franchise locations
throughout North America.
OPTICAL RETAIL