EssilorLuxottica intends to acquire full ownership in GrandVision to create a truly global eyecare and eyewear company
Leonardo Del Vecchio, Executive Chairman of EssilorLuxottica commented: "Following the creation of EssilorLuxottica, which I strongly pursued, the acquisition of GrandVision represents the realization of a vision that has guided my actions and the growth of Luxottica over all these years. With GrandVision we will be able to develop our retail network, finally extended throughout the geographies, and fully enable our multichannel and digital platforms. We will raise the quality of in-store experience for products, brands and services for the benefit of all consumers and our wholesale customers.”
Hubert Sagnières, Executive Vice Chairman of EssilorLuxottica stated: “This acquisition is another step towards our ambition to eradicate poor vision in the world before 2050. Following the combination with Luxottica, it‘s a milestone in our vision of reshaping the optical industry with the aim to provide all consumers of the world a better optical experience with higher quality eyewear. We look forward to welcoming the 37,000 employees of GrandVision to the growing EssilorLuxottica family. Together, we will have an even stronger voice to champion better vision everywhere in the world.”
Stephan Borchert, CEO of GrandVision: “The future integration of GrandVision with EssilorLuxottica brings new opportunities to GrandVision’s business, its well-established retail banners, stores, employees and all our stakeholders. Furthermore, it will create a truly global eyecare and eyewear company that is ideally positioned to capture changing consumer needs and behaviors, and provide its customers with a high quality optical omni-channel customer experience. This transaction is expected to provide value to GrandVision’s shareholders, while allowing for the acceleration of GrandVision’s growth strategy through the expansion of our store network and online platforms. EssilorLuxottica’s interest in joining forces with GrandVision is a clear recognition of GrandVision’s successful strategy, our state-of-the-art retail platform and our people. We look forward to joining forces with EssilorLuxottica in what will be an exciting new chapter ahead.”
Kees van der Graaf, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of GrandVision: “The proposed combination of GrandVision and EssilorLuxottica provides an excellent opportunity to further strengthen the growth prospects of GrandVision. The Management Board and Supervisory Board of GrandVision decided to fully support the transaction as we believe it will contribute to the long-term sustainable success of the business and is in the best interests of GrandVision's stakeholders.”