Besides a Bvlgari boutique, and close to the Triumphal Arc, in the Champs-Élysées avenue, in Paris, lies GrandOptical’s flagship, an eyewear store of 600 square meters distributed through three floors, with over 3.000 frames lined on shelves. On ground level are brand lines and some licensed products, such as Prada and Giorgio Armani. On the first floor are children’s collections and a VIP lounge. In the second floor are the more exclusive lines, such as limited edition Dolce & Gabanna models and Cartier pieces with golden frames that surpass the 30.000 euros.

More than a store, GrandOptical is a symbol for the whole universe of EssilorLuxottica. The biggest company in its segment has a vertical organization, which ranges from material research and development to final product sales. The company possesses 18.000 sales points spread around the world, among global multibrands such as GrandOptical itself, besides private brand stores such as Ray-Ban and Oakley. In Brazil alone, the group operates in around 1.600 sales points, among which stands out Óticas Carol, with 1.400 establishments.

GrandOptical’s Champs-Élysées address was made to resemble a purchasing experience inspired by Parisian art de-vivre – but matching luxury with plenty of technology. In the store, the client can make take vision exams with equipment that use a predictive model based on AI, with greater diagnosis accuracy. Close to the main entrance, sellers demonstrate Ray-Ban Meta, the smart goggles with a series of audiovisual resources, in which the user can record the environment and listen to a podcast, among other features, with a voice command. Recently, Oakley and Meta have also announced other models with similar functions but turned to performance.

Technological Innovations

In early October, EXAME visited the company’s headquarters in Paris, going to product development centers and talking to executives. More than simply offering lenses and frames from iconic brands, EssilorLuxottica positions itself increasingly more as a global medtech. Besides investing in product diversification, the company has been integrating optical devices, clinical diagnoses and artificial intelligence into the same ecosystem. A new division, named Helix, was recently made to unify these fronts.

⟶ €14 billion in revenue in the first half of 2025 | 7.3% revenue growth compared to the same period of the previous year | 150 own brands, including lenses, frames and retail networks | 27 licensed fashion brands for frames | 200,000 employees in 150 countries | 18,000 stores | 560 million lenses and 116 million frames produced per year | 650 operational facilities, including more than 50 lens research and development centers | 1 billion people benefited by the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation, the company's philanthropic arm | 90 million people received eyeglasses through partner companies of the program | 36,000 access points created by the program to serve communities worldwide

EssilorLuxottica has over 50 R&D units around the world. The company has established four innovation pillars: expand care with a focus on medtech, boost style, make glasses into a gateway to new worlds and digitalize the industry from the bottom up. “Our mission is to explore the relationship between the latest technological innovations and the people that will use it, transform technical components into usable and desirable products”, says Alexandre Gourrard, innovation manager in R&D. His team’s job is to conduct large scale multidisciplinary studies, from clinical surveys to routine tests with glasses prototypes.

Currently, the group’s portfolio includes the lenses brands Essilor, Variluz, Crizal, -Eyezen, Stellest, and Xperio, besides Transitions, which darken in response to sunlight. The company has partnerships with companies such as Eastman Kodak and Nikon for the development for new products. Another acting area is of lenses for medical and ophthalmological equipment, with private brands such asEssilor Instruments, Heidelberg Engineering, -Espancione Group, Satisloh and Humanware.

After Ray-Ban and Oakley’s partnerships with Meta, EssilorLuxottica is now introducing into the market another product which promises to change behaviors. At a first glance, Nuance Audio looks like common acetate glasses. But inside the slightly thicker frames lies a hearing device that can turn up the volume of surrounding voices. It is even possible to choose to highlight the sound of the speaker to whoever the user is looking at out of the whole environment, through an app or a remote controller. “Nuance was made for light to moderate hearing loss”, affirms Giulia Stocco, ExilorLuxottica’s project manager. “We know there is a big resistance for people against wearing hearing aids. The glasses help with this feeling of embarrassment.”

The challenge of tired eyesight

The group was formed in 2018 through the fusion of two sector giants. The French Essilor, a lenses specialist, also came from the joint forces of Essel and Silor, in 1972. The Italian Luxottica was founded in 1961 and became the leader of frame production, with private brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley and licensing for luxury brans such as Burberry and Tiffany. The company made 14 billion euros in profits during the first semester of 2025, with 7,3% revenue growth in relation to the same period of the previous year.

The result is mainly owed to the good performance of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and Asia-Pacific regions. With so many companies from varied segments, EssilorLuxottica faces the uncertainties of Donald Trump’s import tariffs. The group currently owns factories and labs in 20 countries. In Brazil, there are two production lines. Around 43% of revenue comes from the American market, said global CEO Francesco Milleri, in April this year. In the occasion, the executive considered moving a bigger part of production to the United States.

EssilorLuxottica operates 150 private brands, from lenses to frames and retail networks. It counts with 200.000 employees in 150 countries and 650 operational units. Each year, it produces 560 million lenses and 116 million frames. One of their better-known lenses brands is the multifocal Varilux. Launched in 1959, it is indicated to the correction of presbyopia. The term has a well-known meaning for those going through mid-life: tired eyesight, difficulty to focus in short distances. This is a huge market. Everyone, after 45, will have some degree of presbyopia. Today, an estimated 1.9 billion people have tired eyes. “With population aging, the tendency is that increasingly more people will have eyesight issues”, affirms Valérie Parmentier, manager of the presbyopia and aging research team. The department under her command counts with global partners such as the World Council of Optometry. “We are always trying to understand behavior models, such as the current excessive screen usage, to establish new treatment patterns.”

A current challenge for the company is convincing costumers of the importance of adequate lenses. When its time to make new glasses, the tendency is many times to favor beautiful and luxurious frames. Varilux XR Series, launched in 2023, was the first developed with AI. This month, the company is introducing Varilux Physio Extensee with the fist lenses from the brand’s digital line that will also be customized.

It is an expensive product, with an entry price in Brazil of 2,600 reais, on average. One of the current branches of EssilorLuxottica is the OneSight Foundation, with has as an objective “to  help eradicate bad and uncorrected eyesight by 2050.” The philanthropic organization has already serviced over 1 billion people in needy communities around the world, helping with some kind of aid. With partner companies, it has distributed 90 million glasses. Access to vulnerable people today is given through 36.000 access points.

In Brazil, during a recent celebration of World Sight Day on October 9th, the foundation provided 4,500 services across 12 states, focusing on children, young people, athletes, and individuals in vulnerable situations. 1,500 pairs of eyeglasses were donated on that occasion. “We’ve even had cases where someone served by the program opened their own optical shop,” says Frédéric Corbasson, executive director of the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation for Europe and the Middle East. “Generally, we serve people for whom the cost of a simple pair of eyeglasses is unfeasible. Regaining their sight can change a life.”

Giorgio Pradi, president of EssilorLuxottica in Brazil, highlights pioneering spirit as one of the group's core values. “We are transforming ourselves as society reinvents itself,” he said. “Innovation permeates everything from medical equipment to the end-consumer experience, who uses our glasses and sees better with the help of our lenses. We have established ourselves as a medtech company, where science, technology, and design come together for the health and well-being of people. More than just seeing, eyes are now a window to connection, creativity, expression, and autonomy.”