Leonardo Del Vecchio, who died at the age of 87, is named after his father, who passed away before his birth. The family lived in Milan, emigrated from Puglia, from the Trani area: the youngest of four brothers entered the ‘Martinitt’ boarding school, on the eastern outskirts of the Lombard capital, then in reality in the middle of the countryside, where orphans and abandoned children are welcomed. It was not the case with him, but the family had serious economic problems, with Leonardo who always remained very close to his mother.
Now he is remembered as the founder and president of Luxottica, then led to the merger with the French Essilor to create EssilorLuxottica, a group that now has over 180,000 employees. Or shareholder of Mediobanca, Generali and Covivio, among other things, with wealth concentrated in the Delfin family holding company valued at around 25 billion. And with a great desire to experiment and innovate: from Google glasses to the challenge of the metaverse, with the visit of Mark Zuckerberg just a month ago to work on the new intelligent viewers.
But the gaze on the future has its roots in the years of college, of growing up without a family, which he has always deeply remembered. He stayed at the ‘Martinitt’ until completing his middle school studies, before going to work as an apprentice in a small Milanese company producing medals and cups. There they manufactured small batches of metal eyeglass frames at the request of other post-war companies.
And there the young Leonardo gets the idea that he will never abandon: the potential of that product which, in a more affluent society, would have had an exponentially larger audience.
But it is still early: he attended evening courses at the Brera Academy for engraver and at 22 he moved to a town in Trentino where he worked as a worker. In 1958 he changed to Agordo, in the province of Belluno, to open a shop of eyeglass frames. Why Agordo? On the slopes of the Dolomites? Simply because the mountain community had made land available free of charge to young entrepreneurs who had set up a new company. From this will be born the largest eyewear pole in the world.
Thanks to Luxottica started in 1961 by Del Vecchio with just over 10 employees and an unprecedented tenacity towards banks, which with difficulty granted credit to those who came out of nowhere, and to the first shareholders who wanted to keep the majority. But the young Del Vecchio was like the last one: he never liked being in the minority. In 1967 Luxottica, while still working for the production of major companies, launched into the national market with its own brand, with a crucial turning point: it took care of the production of eyewear in all its forms, producing specimens designed and born in the factory. It introduces a style, appreciated by the market. A turning point that makes its debut at the Milan eyewear fair, Mido, establishing a never-ending bond, a return, a centrality of the city for Del Vecchio. That he will live in Milan and will transfer the headquarters of his activities.
In the 1980s the entrepreneur, also thanks to his ties with various fashion brands, ‘attacked’ abroad, Europe first, but then forcefully the US market, to the point of incorporating Ray-Ban, the most famous brand world of sunglasses.
Listed in New York since 1990, it will also land in Piazza Affari in 2000, among other things it acquires Sunglass Hut, then Oakley, looks to the world of lenses. After difficult relationships with some of ‘his’ CEOs, at the age of 80 he decided the big step, surprisingly for many, not for those who knew him well: he thinks that the group, although by far the largest in the sector in the world, is too small and in 2016 he merged Luxottica with the French Essilor, a giant in prescription lenses.
The conflict with the French management and shareholders is strong, but Del Vecchio is perhaps the only one who went to France to win and in fact waits patiently for the sharing agreements to expire and then exercises his role as main shareholder. Now at the head of the 65 billion capitalization giant he leaves his trusty Francesco Milleri. His succession, extensively prepared, between his children Claudio, Paola (from his first marriage to Luciana Nervo), Leonardo Maria (from his wife Nicoletta Zampillo who remarried in 2010), Luca and Clemente, from ex-partner Sabina Grossi.
Source: Ansa
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