Leonardo del Vecchio made his fortune by turning an optics workshop into the world’s largest eyewear conglomerate
Italian billionaire Leonardo del Vecchio, the most important shareholder and head of the EssilorLuxottica holding, which owns, amongst different manufacturers, eyewear producer Ray-Ban, has died on the age of 87, his firm introduced on Monday.
“EssilorLuxottica sadly declares as we speak that its Chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio has handed away. The Firm expresses its deepest condolences to the Household and to the worldwide worker group for this huge loss,” the corporate mentioned in a press launch.
Del Vecchio was raised in an orphanage in Milan and began his enterprise as a small provider of elements for eyeglass frames. He established Luxottica in 1961 with solely a dozen workers and nurtured the corporate all the way in which to turning into Italy’s largest eyewear producer, after which, after a 2018 merger with French lens maker Essilor, the most important eyewear conglomerate on the planet.
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EssilorLuxottica employs some 180,000 folks and owns iconic manufacturers resembling Ray-Ban and Oakley. Del Vecchio’s controlling 32% stake within the firm made him the second-richest man in Italy with an estimated fortune of $ 24.1 billion, based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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