Latest News Luxottica’s LensCrafters Retail Division Turns Focus to ‘Retail Excellence’ By Staff Wednesday, July 26, 2017 12:27 AM MILAN—As Luxottica Group S.p.A. (MTA:LUX) transitions to a greater emphasis on “retail excellence” and moves away from promotional selling, company management reported this week that the ongoing changes and the corresponding results of its retail division, particularly LensCrafters, is “progressing as we planned.” Luxottica CEO for product and operations Massimo Vian, in a conference call with financial analysts Monday after Luxottica reported first-half results, noted that the focus of LensCrafters is built upon three strategic pillars: the right talent in the right roles, tighter operations management and superior product. A goal of the strategy is to protect profitability, according to Luxottica.As part of the new strategic view, LensCrafters as it heads into back-to-school selling has removed “all the 50 percent off signs that were in the windows,” Vian said. LensCrafters will continue to offer “good deals,” but they will be promoted in a different way, he explained. “We do not want to compete with other retailers that offer two pair for $69.99. That's not our job and that’s not the quality we want to compete with. We are different.”One element of the new promotional plan is the introduction of “a very competitive bundled offer for complete care solution, inclusive of anti-reflective treatment” for both children and adults, he added. LensCrafters also has made a significant investment in training over the past six months to develop its own digital academy and “to grow the potential and the performances of our store market managers and our associates,” he said.An indication of the progress, Luxottica said, is that LensCrafters same-store sales moved to negative 1 percent in the second quarter from negative 3 percent in the first quarter of 2017. “The hard, heavy lifting work on LensCrafters is not over yet, but tangible progress has been made there,” chief financial officer Stefano Grassi said on the conference call. “We continue our journey in making the consumer experience in LensCrafters a more exciting one, leveraging the technology of our equipment, delivering [state of the art lenses] and making our store more productive than before.”