Luxottica sees room for fast growth

"When we began to understand how the Chinese market really worked, 10 years ago, we started to introduce our brands, strengthening our ties with Chinese consumers."

The company, which is present in 130 countries and is listed on the New York and the Milan stock exchanges, decided to become more deeply invested in China.

"Luxottica was the first Italian company to have a wholly-owned facility in China and the first to enter the retail market in 2006, five years after China had become a member of World Trade Organization in 2001," Guerra says. "At that time, we decided to enter the Chinese market as retailers."

Guerra says that the firm wanted to adapt its business model to the huge country. "In time, we have built an efficient and well-structured organization to support production, logistics, wholesale and a retail network."

"So today we are on the way of spectacular growth. In the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, in 2013, our retail division reported a strong performance. Last year alone, store sales increased at a double-digit rate, an amazing 50 percent. We are really happy with these results."

Luxottica's production system is spread over three countries: China, Italy and the United States.

Del Vecchio, the company founder, was fond of saying the company's strategy was to take an open approach to exploring the resources, aptitudes and values of the countries in which it operates to create a harmonious business environment for everyone.

"Today, I can confirm that our Chinese production plants, together with our Italian ones, are the nerve centers of our business the world No 1 in research, automation, materials and craftsmanship," Guerra says.

Luxottica benefits from using a strong executive team of 60 Chinese personnel, including designers and engineers. "Extremely creative, they are working for us in our style and design department in Dongguan," Guerra says. "I believe that the collaboration with our Chinese team will bring spectacular results over the next five to 10 years."

Luxottica has more than 7,000 optical retail stores in North America, China, Thailand, India, Europe, Latin America and South Africa.

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