Giovanna Zoppas, Thélios CEO

PARIS—Thélios, the LVMH eyewear specialist is progressing on its way to adding to its brand product collections, expanding its manufacturing capabilities in Longarone, Italy, and investing further in its new U.S. showroom and a new distribution facility — which will open in New Jersey this week — to better serve the needs of accounts in North America. In an exclusive interview with Vision Monday here, Thélios' CEO, Giovanni Zoppas, discussed the group's philosophy and select approach to representing the distinct brands of LVHM Group in the Cercle D'Aumale in Paris, where the collections were presented to opticians and select accounts during Silmo. "Thélios was born from the will of the LVMH group, the world leader in luxury, to disrupt the eyewear market, providing excellent product and impeccable service. Thélios USA became an independent entity in North America, separating operationally from Marcolin USA, who supported the initial launch of the U.S. and Canada activities. We are very excited to officially launch Thélios USA because this is the beginning of our independent journey. This important development illustrates the group’s plans to build solid foundations in North America, establishing lasting infrastructure to meet our partners’ expectations in terms of service and quality."

"With the consolidation we are seeing in this industry and the changes in the world's fashion and retail markets, we see that few brands can survive profitably in the new environment where there is so much fragmentation. Strong brands need to have consistency, be efficient, and express quality. This is what Thélios is. We intend to be a leader in this eyewear industry with our own specific ways of doing business, and embodying a luxury quality in design, service, manufacturing and our relationships. It's a long term view that we are taking and we are very confident we will be successful on our path, " Zoppas told.

Zoppas said that the company intends to partner with those opticians and optical retailers who are themselves prepared to represent the company's brands in a particular way in their environments, and to support their needs with respect.


Thélios took over the Cercie d'Aumale in Paris to preview its collections from such LVMH brands as Celine, Fred, Loewe, Kenzo and Berluti



He noted that the initial Thélios factory in Italy, approximately 8,000 square meters, has a manufacturing capacity of 1.5 million. With the significant addition of another 12,000 square meters, now underway,  Thélios will expand its capabilities to 4.5 million. There are currently about 400 people working at the company now, many of these are inside, design and support people, with another 400 expected to come in soon, the majority of these positions in the factory. "We have a weekly plan of what we have to do, which is consistent with our goals and where we need to be," he noted.

Thélios new office in East Rutherford, N.J., will be dedicated to operations, IT, finance and customer service for North American customers. “We are proud in particular to establish a new dedicated customer service team ready to support our partners. Our objective is to provide them not only with very high-end product but also the best customer experience," Zoppas said.

The existing office inside Madison Avenue in New York City will continue to serve as the sales and marketing hub starting this month. Thélios USA will showcase Spring 2020 eyewear collection of LVMH Maisons: Celine, Loewe, Kenzo, Fred . The company is also planning to host a special event celebrate the official launch of Berluti Eyewear.