Leonardo Del Vecchio Founder of Luxottica Group

Biography of Leonardo Del Vecchio

Early Life

Leonardo Del Vecchio founder of Luxottica Group  was born in Milan, Italy on 22^nd May, 1935. He was born into a very poor family of Italy. His father died five months before he was born. His mother was also very poor and was unable to financially support and grew the new born baby by herself. So, for his betterment she gave that baby child to an orphanage. His childhood passed in that orphanage.

Early Career

His working career started from a learning process at the shop of a dye and tool maker in Milan. He was a trainee there. After learning that work from his master at that shop he shifted his domain somehow. He was trained in tool making but he used his skills of playing with metals in making of spectacle products.

Founder of Luxottica Group

When he decided to manufacture the spectacles’ products, he migrated to Agordo which was located in the province of Belluno for setting an eyewear products manufacturing company in 1961. That place is known for the home of all the Italian eyewear companies. He started a new company there, which was a partnership business. That company was named as Luxottica. After some years in 1967, he turned that name into a brand, and he started selling the products with complete eyeglass frames under the brand name of Luxottica. That brand name became very successful and he made so much progress in that business. After that much progress in 1971, he was able to make that business a sole proprietorship. He ended all his contracts with other manufacturing businesses and became independent company.

Luxottica Group

Luxottica Group is a multinational company of Italy in the field of producing eyewear products. It is the world’s biggest company in the field of eyewear products. Almost 80% of the globe’s eyewear products are under the control of Luxottica.

Its most popular brands and products are Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Persol. Its major competitor is the Safilo Group S.p.A. It’s headquarter is located in Milan, Italy.

It also manufactures sunglasses and other eyewear brands in collaboration with other fashion industries like Giorgio Armani, Stella McCartney, Burberry, Versace, Tory Burch, Donna Karan, Vogue, and Miu Miu.

Later Life and Other Company

After the formation of Luxottica Company he was very much eager in the vertical increment of the company. In order to increase the business he obtained a distribution company in 1974. That company was named as Scarrone. After some years of its formation, that company acquired its first subsidiary on international level in Germany. That period was of rapid expansion on international level. Its first designer deal was struck in 1988 with Giorgio Armani, which was its first collaborative project.

According to the survey of Forbes magazine, he was named in the lsit of the richest persons of Italy. According to that magazine’s report he is on the second slot in the list of Italy’s richest persons after Michele Ferrero who is at the first number. He is a man of worth of an amount of US$11 billion. In overall world’s ranking, he is named as 71^st richest person in the data of March 2011. The company is also listed in different stock markets of different countries.