NEW YORK—From logistics and distribution which gave him a working knowledge of Luxottica Group’s complex wholesale and retail business around the world, Fabrizio Uguzzoni, an engineer by training, is bringing a perspective of both a high level of detail and the value of the big picture to his latest role at the company—president of Luxottica Wholesale N.A..

In his first official interview since assuming full responsibility for one of Luxottica’s largest business units, this past January, Uguzzoni underscored to Vision Monday that his business goals for Luxottica wholesale’s 20,000+ accounts in the U.S. and North America are consistent with what has been the division’s long-term vision and strategy.

That is, first, to grow the overall vision care market by helping to elevate the importance of vision care in the mind of the consumer (supporting industry-wide initiatives like Think About Your Eyes and The Sight documentary). Second, to make sure that Luxottica’s portfolio of brands— both licensed and company brands—have a meaningful story to communicate to the diverse range of eyewear customers in the market. And third, that the company’s active training, road shows and education programs are helping accounts better communicate about eyewear and the art of contemporary retailing.




Fabrizio Uguzzoni, President of Luxottica Wholesale N.A.


It is Uguzzoni’s unique career path which is informing his thinking and helping him oversee a team serving such a diverse range of customers, large and small, he acknowledges. A trained engineer and an executive with Germany’s Bayer pharmaceutical and chemical firm and with Whirlpool, led him to live in Germany, Poland and China before he joined Luxottica seven years ago and returned to Italy to head the company’s procurement.

This was a global role, involving him in the detailed work of frames, parts, tools, machinery, materials and everything connected to production for the worldwide market. He was then asked to take on the role of overseeing distribution logistics for the Group. At the time, Luxottica had more than 17 distribution centers around the world, to serve the needs of more than 200,000 doors, Uguzzoni recalled. He reported to Massimo Vian, now co-CEO of Luxottica Group (NYSE:LUX).

But the experience, which also brought him to the U.S. market for a year, in Atlanta near the company’s major distribution center there, gave him additional perspective on serving different customers’ priorities.

The company asked him about joining the N.A. wholesale operation and he came to New York in 2014, working closely with his predecessor, Holly Rush, and the leadership team, in the role of senior VP operations and finance.

Today, Uguzzoni is focusing the wholesale team’s efforts on helping accounts with technology and support solutions to help customers better manage their businesses. As he’s travelled around the country to meet more of the company’s accounts, Uguzzoni said, “It was very interesting to see the range of diverse types of customers across the U.S. market. The customers are so different, from one-unit mom and pop type stores and doctor’s offices to huge chains or department stores.

“The concept of ‘vision consulting’ is always a part of the way we want our team to focus with our customers, no matter the size. We are now an organization of 800 people and more than half of them are in the field every day.

“We have an unbelievable brand portfolio. And, yes, there is a complexity of having 26 brands in that portfolio but we are focused on what’s relevant to our customers. It’s important to understand their needs; we don’t have ‘one’ solution or a single assortment that is valid for all of them. We want our sales people and managers to help them analyze how to present the best assortments and mix.

“STARS, an automatic replenishment type of system, a tool we inaugurated one year ago, is where we define with the account the best assortment for them to carry, which brands, within the brands, the proportion of sun and optical, and we do it as a customized approach, customer by customer.”

STARS, a global program, was tested with a group of U.S. accounts. “The customers participating in Luxottica’s STARS pilot have seen high double digit sales growth year-over-year,” he said. The pilot included a few hundred doors, including a mix of independents and chains.

“STARS makes sure you have the best-selling, best performing frames in your store,” Uguzzoni said. “Its success, measured by improved sell-through and sales, has now gained such traction that Luxottica intends to roll it out as a model that can be expanded in a scaleable way to more accounts, large and small.

“The program reduces the inventory that the account needs to have in the store. At the same time, the sales are improving and the reps in the field, who we see as brand ambassadors, can spend more time with the accounts on other matters, training, merchandising and so forth.”

Mid-year last year, Luxottica Wholesale North America realigned its commercial structure. Ludo Ladreyt, who has worked in the U.S. with key accounts and led sales and marketing in Canada previously, was appointed to the newly-created role of senior vice president, sales, for the N.A. optical channel.

All optical customers from independent to key account are now served under one dedicated and customer-centric sales structure. Reporting to Ladreyt are Alessandro Baronti and Nicola Perini (U.S. independents), Alessandro Lucanto (key accounts), Jennifer Brown (business development) and the Canadian independent and key account teams.

Peter Guthy continues as vice president of sales for department stores in the premium sun category in N.A. Guthy and his team also oversee the boutique, premium and e-commerce channel for Luxottica.

Also, Laurent Boury joined Luxotttica Wholesale N.A. as vice president of marketing. Hilary Hartley, a nine-year Oakley sales exec and leader, was named vice president of the optical channel for Oakley. Luxottica announced a year ago that Oakley’s wholesale division would become integrated into Luxottica wholesale, a move designed to combine the two organizations’ efforts to serve the optical and sport markets with a single, market-facing team.

New Efforts to Protect Ray-Ban, Include New Minimum Advertised Price Policy

NEW YORK—Luxottica is undertaking a series of activities to “protect the reputation” of its Ray-Ban brand, the company said last month, including establishing a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy for Ray-Ban, which became effective for its wholesale and retail customers (including its own retail brands) on April 4 in the U.S. and Canada.

In short, the MAP policy prohibits wholesale customers from advertising Ray-Ban products in their stores at a deep discount. It does not set a minimum price that the product is sold to consumers. Both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce customers will be required to adhere to the policy.

A Luxottica spokesperson said, “The MAP policy applies to our wholesale customers, and also to our own retail businesses as well. So Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Target Optical and Sears Optical will all be adhering to the policy.”





Fabrizio Uguzzoni, president of Luxottica Wholesale N.A., told VM, “Ray-Ban is one of the most recognizable consumer brands in the world. We could lean on the equity we’ve built to date, but we’re in it for the long-term and that requires a bigger commitment from us. Today, we’re right up there with Apple, Coca Cola and Google as one of the most loved brands, especially among Millennials. And we want to keep it that way.”

In its other communication, the company said, “Luxottica has built a strong consumer following for our brands, most notably, Ray-Ban, and has established a quality distribution network that actively represents and promotes our products to end consumers. Luxottica actively supports the advertising and promotion of its products by providing marketing and promotional materials at no or nominal cost. This MAP policy has been established to enhance our existing efforts, to protect the legacy of Ray-Ban and to share the benefits of that legacy with our partners.”

The MAP policy “effectively prohibits any advertising or marketing that may adversely diminish, detract and/or damage the value of the products. If a retailer advertises Ray-Ban product in a manner inconsistent with this MAP policy, Luxottica may unilaterally cease its business relationship with such retailer.”

The policy states that “MAP applies only to advertised prices and does not apply to the price at which the products are actually sold or offered for sale.”

Luxottica has also taken other steps to preserve the brand equity of Ray-Ban, a company spokesperson told VM. In 2015, the company collaborated with law enforcement and customs to seize 4.8 million units of counterfeit Ray-Ban products.

Also last year, the company closed over 17,000 websites and removed 375,000 marketplace listings selling counterfeit products or violating its trademarks.

The spokesperson added that the company began working more closely with internet sellers to weed out fake/subpar Ray-Bans from being either promoted or sold on their platforms.