Continue To Expand Its Own Glasses Production Capacity, LVMH Italy To Build Second Glasses Factory

The French luxury goods giant LVMH group and its partner, Italy eyewear manufacturer Marcolin, are building second factories in Italy. After next year's production, the LVMH's own capacity will exceed 4 million 500 thousand pairs per year.

In 2017, LVMH announced its partnership with Marcolin, the world's third largest eyewear manufacturer, to jointly create Th lios, a joint venture company, to engage in glasses design and production.

LVMH group holds a stake in Th e lios 51%, and Marcolin holds 49% of the remaining shares.

In April 2018, Th e lios had its first own eyewear factory in northern Venice, Italy.

"As the first plant expansion project, second factories started two weeks ago," Jean Baptiste Voisin, chief strategist of LVMH group, told Agence France-Presse in an interview on Monday.

It is expected that the project will be put into operation in the fourth quarter of 2020, and the production area will be expanded by two times. "

The first factory can produce 1 million 500 thousand pairs of glasses every year. It is estimated that the output of second factories will increase the annual output to 4 million 500 thousand pairs.

When the two plants are fully put into operation, LVMH will employ 600 to 700 employees, and the current number of employees is about 120.

Through the establishment of Th e lios own factory, LVMH has started the process of autonomous production of glasses.

Previously, LVMH used the traditional authorization system, and the production and distribution of sunglasses and frames were made up of third party glasses specialized enterprises.

The LVMH group hopes to build a new business model similar to the rival French luxury group Kering (Kai Yun), which is based on the productivity of Th lios, which currently operates its own brand eyewear business through its eye mirror company Kering Eyewear, and also acts as a proxy for other companies (such as Cartire, which is under the historic peak group).

The goal of LVMH group is to create an ecosystem that integrates creative and professional handicrafts, industries and new technologies, while ensuring the high-end distribution channels of its brand products.

After the factory has been put into operation, LVMH has recovered the outsourcing business of the second largest glasses manufacturers in the world and Italy luxury spectacles group Safilo (Xia Fei). Celine has become the first brand of LVMH to produce eyeglasses independently in the Th lios factory, and Loewe, Fred, Kenzo and Berluti will also join the ranks.

Jean Baptiste Voisin added: "Th lios will give special emphasis to (spectacles) prototype production."

Thanks to the combination of cutting edge and proprietary technology, Th lios has developed a complete and flexible production mechanism to ensure that the product is monitored from the initial creative stage to the 3D design, prototype production and finished product production.

He said: "we focus on quality.

Although the eyeglasses industry is generally keen to expand, increase the number of retail outlets as much as possible.

But we have adopted the opposite strategy: we hope to reduce the number of shops and firmly control the quality so that we can track the quality of each pair of glasses.

It is worth noting that in the first year of the production of Th lios, the sales of Celine glasses business were higher than that authorized to Safilo, and the number of outlets was reduced to less than half that before.

At present, LVMH's brand eyewear is relatively dispersed, and different partners are responsible for producing different series. For example, the authorized production dealer of Dior glasses is still the Italy glasses giant Safilo (Xia Feinuo), but the cooperation agreement between the two sides will expire in 2020.

In addition, the licensing agreement between Safilo and LVMH's brands such as Givenchy, Fendi and Marc Jacobs will expire between 2021 and 2024.

Affected by this, Safilo's share price fell 81.45% in the past two years.