Alessandro Zanardo. Image courtesy of Stefanie Rex

NEW YORK and LONGARONE, Italy—Investment in its brand portfolio, its own eyewear manufacturing, new international subsidiaries and expanded sales and internal brand and sales teams have made it a busy two years for Thélios, the eyewear division of LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. This week's announcement of the signing of a deal to acquire Los Angeles-based eyewear/sunwear Barton Perreira, as VMAIL reported yesterday, was another sign of the ongoing transformation of the group. The deal for Barton Perreira was reported by The Wall Street Journal to be valued at $80 million based on its own sources.

Neither Thélios or LVMH would confirm or share the details of the transaction, which is expected to be closed in a few weeks.

However, Thélios leadership sees a great international upside opportunity for "a select group of proprietary brands that have unique stories and great value," as Thélios CEO Alessandro Zanardo puts it, to be compatible with LVMH's own "maisons" or houses, such as Dior, Fendi, Celine, Givenchy, Loewe, Stella McCartney, Kenzo, Berluti and Fred spanning fashion, leather goods, jewelry, watches and more.

 
 Barton Perreria's boutique in New York's Meatpacking District.
As the news was announced about Barton Perreria, Zanardo sat for a one-one-one interview with VMAIL to talk about several elements of the company's new approach. Zanardo joined Thélios in February 2022, and a new chapter began for the eyewear business, which itself was officially integrated into the LVMH Group as its own subsidiary after its initial startup a few years prior as a joint venture between LVMH and Marcolin.

Zanardo, who started his career at Ferrari in 2002, joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 2007 and between 2010 and 2021, held a series of positions at Luxottica Group, such as business and development director in Russia, country manager in South Africa, and general manager in Brazil.

“We’re continuing to expand our footprint, and while I cannot divulge numbers at this time, our business and the scope of our operation has doubled in the past two years,” he said. “We’ve launched more than a dozen subsidiaries and will do a few more next year including the Middle East/Dubai in January, to reach luxury customers in more geographies.

"We’ve made a point to invest in our in-house manufacturing expertise, with our acquisition of a small factory earlier in 2023 and, just last week, after long talks and a lot of work, we concluded the acquisition of much of Safilo’s historic Longarone facility and the talent of experienced eyewear workers and new dimensions and capabilities of metal production to expand our presence for ‘manufatture’ in Italy, which is so critical for us.”

In fact, he pointed out, “having expertise in all dimensions of quality luxury manufacturing, and being able to rapidly use new technologies, has been a foundational goal of Thélios. This is what allows us to control quality and time to market, which is so important in the luxury space. Having an experienced workforce like that, who can collaborate knowledgeably with our product development process is critical.”


Thélios' headquarters in Longarone. Image courtesy of Stefanie Rex

  
Zanardo says that the group has also put a focus on making sure that the maison brands continue to be elevated and distribution has been examined. One program that was recently launched is called Thélios Society, recognizing that many of the group’s customers around the world are like-minded, can learn from each other and can inform new ideas.

“As we go, we will consider differentiated services, sometimes bringing them together to have conversations and providing unique content to advance ideas of partnership in our business. This will be a global approach with local definition, a new platform where there can be training, advising, sharing, special experiences, tools that we dedicate to them, it’s something we’ll develop and the rest of our customers can also benefit from this.

"It’s not closed, our customer base is ever-evolving, but we want to have an inflow and outflow with the group.” In development are also digital training platforms and new and creative ways to give all of Thélios’ eyewear brands the best possible experience to consumers with our customers.”

Regarding the composition of the portfolio of Thélios, Zanardo emphasized, “Our fashion houses are of course a major priority in terms of quality, excellence and their powerful brand images. But we also see that ‘eyewear’ excellence can be special, and we can apply our same know-how and capabilities to very, very select independent eyewear brands. It’s not a strategy of ‘collecting’ brands, though. But finding independent eyewear brands that are exceptional for their own and different reasons, brands that complement our house portfolio.”

Vuarnet, he said, “is an amazing story with a founder who is an unbelievable legend in France, which has a technical component with a history of special mineral lenses. We didn’t buy a ‘sport’ brand, this is a name dedicated to an outdoor heritage, with a style edge."

 
 
Zanardo noted, “Barton Perreira is totally timeless, and it is a brand with a strength in sunwear but also a grounding in optical, which is important and distinct value of that brand, with impeccable quality and two amazing founders who are always looking out for what’s next.”

He reconfirmed that founders Bill Barton and Patty Perreira will remain in their current roles. Barton, as CEO working and reporting to Zanardo directly, will work hand-in-hand with the Thélios commercial team in North America. He will lend his expertise where needed. In Europe, Asia and the rest of the world there will be a shift to Thélios, as Barton Perreira’s current distribution with Marcolin for those regions will be transitioned.