AN ENTREPRENEUR’S STORY

Unlike my mother who before reading anything else in the newspaper turned to the Obituary page to see who had recently died,  a couple of weeks ago I happened upon the obituary of Leonardo Del Vecchio.  The name caught my eye, my family knew people with that surname.  The obituary took up the top half of a page in the NYT, Tuesday June 28,2022.  Intrigued, I kept reading. Who was this person?  

Watching 60 Minutes years ago I recalled a segment they did on Luxottica, the under the radar Italian manufacturer of eyeglasses. A spokesperson for the company said “our ambition is to eradicate poor vision in the world before 2050”.  Mr Del Vecchio transformed the sleepy un -differentiated eyeglass industry into a billion dollar publicly traded company and single-handedly transformed wearing eyeglasses especially for those needing corrective lenses, into a vehicle to bring their personality into their everyday lives. Now even those who don’t need prescription lenses are wearing glasses as a fashion statement.  The industry went from putting components together to making complete frames. Streamlining the process reduced expenses. Del Vecchio didn’t stop there.  He wanted Luxottica to sell its product as well,  acquiring retail chains throughout the world. 

Recognizing upper and middle income families who wore luxury brands might want to top off their looks with designer glasses, he licensed 80% of designer brands. Frames were selling at exorbitant prices.  Making, as one reporter said, “obscene profits”.

I am intrigued at how people build their businesses.  Del Vecchio grew up in an orphanage, apprenticed to a metal engraver and took advantage of an opportunity to move to the  small town of Agordo to get free land and a house if he built a business there.  Luxottica was born. 

Caltagirone said “he was a businessman and as a man had solid values; appreciating his loyalty, his determination and detachment from power.”  When he died he was one of the three richest businessmen in Italy. DelVecchio retired in 2004 and came back ten years later to insure his strategic plan was implemented.  Taking his dream a step further, in 2017 he purchased the French company Essilor, one of the largest manufacturers of prescription lenses in the world. The new company is Essilor-Luxottica.  In 2019 at age 84 he acquired the Dutch optical retailer Grand Vision increasing his retail outlets to 16,000 world wide. 

In Italy, he was known as “Mr Nobody”.  Untouched by Italian business corruption scandals of the 1990’s.  When interviewed by  Associated Press in 1995  he said “I don’t like paying taxes, but I like sleeping at night.