French luxury goods company LVMH has reached an agreement to acquire Marcolin’s 49% stake in their joint-venture, Thélios, increasing the former’s shareholding in the high-end Italian optical frames manufacturer.
According to a statement, Marcolin will also buy back the 10% stake LVMH acquired in the firm when Thélios was founded in 2017.
As a result of the deal, Thélios will become fully integrated within LVMH, otherwise known as LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
“This represents an opportunity for LVMH to further strengthen its presence in the eyewear industry leveraging its Italian savoir-faire, and for Marcolin to pursue future strategic investments,” the companies said in a joint statement.
LVMH originally teamed up with eyewear specialist Marcolin four years ago to establish Thélios and create a pathway into the eyewear market.
Thélios is focussed on the luxury eyewear segment, with labels such as Dior, Fendi and Celine.
In 2018, they opened the Manifattura Thélios, their flagship production site in Longarone, within the glasses-making district of Belluno, northeast Italy, with the firm now employing 800 people globally.
The manufacturing facility produces around 1.5 million optical frames annually, but has the capacity to increase this as its portfolio expands.
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