Essilor
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Medical equipment |
| Founded | 1849 (as Essel) 1 January 1972 (as Essilor) |
| Headquarters | Charenton-le-Pont, France |
Key people | Anatole Temkine René Grandperret Bernard Maitenaz Xavier Fontanet Hubert Sagnières |
| Products | Corrective lenses; sun and readers eyeglasses; GOGGLES4U UK ophthalmic equipment and instruments |
| Brands | Varilux, Clearly, Eyebuydirect, Foster Grant, Vision Source, Xiamen Yarui Optical (50%) |
Number of employees | 69,000 (2020) |
| Parent | EssilorLuxottica (2018–present) |
| Website | essilor |
| Footnotes / references #Brands - Citation: https://www.essilor.com/en/our-brand-sites/ ; Retrieved: 19 August 2020. | |
Essilor International is a French multinational corporation specialized in the design, manufacture and sale of ophthalmic lenses, optical equipment and instruments. It is the world's largest manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses. Founded in 1972 out of the merger of two French companies operating in the sector, Essel and Silor, it is headquartered in Charenton-le-Pont, near Paris. Since October 2018, it is a subsidiary of EssilorLuxottica which arose out of a merger between Essilor and the Italian eyewear corporation Luxottica.
In January 2017, Essilor announced a merger with Luxottica, in which Essilor would acquire the latter while Luxottica executive chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio would become co-executive chairman of the newly formed holding company, EssilorLuxottica. On 1 October 2018, the new entity was born, resulting in a combined market capitalization of approximately €57 billion.