Navigating the Latest Shifts in the Eyewear Landscape

PODCAST: In this monthly Fashion Friday podcast series directed by FashionUnited contributor Euromonitor Intenational, Adeline Ho, an Industry Research Associate at Euromonitor International, gives us a glance at the Eyewear market with a specific focus on the Essilor and Luxottica recent merger announcement.

What can you tell us about the recent happenings in the eyewear business?

Adeline Ho, Industry Research Associate at Euromonitor: "To start off, there has, in fact, been a lot of Merger and Acquisition activity in Eyewear over the past few years, but none were quite as big as the one announced by Essilor and Luxottica, two of the leading eyewear players, in January this year."

"The conversation about this merger has so far largely been focused on Essilor and Luxottica forming a huge conglomerate and how this will allow them to leverage on each other's strengths - Essilor in lenses and Luxottica in frames, and increasing market share. And this is huge, obviously, because Essilor commands an overwhelming 31 percent in spectacles lenses globally, and Luxottica is number one in sunglasses and spectacle frames in every region in the world."

"But we also need to talk about how their merger would impact other players and the eyewear industry as a whole. Currently, there is lot of concern within the industry that the creation of such a huge player will allow it to monopolize a large portion of the supply chain and dictate consumer prices."

Listen to the podcast to find out more