Essilor's John Carrier.

NEW YORK—Although the news of Essilor’s planned merger with Luxottica Group traveled through the world’s financial markets at cyber speed today, VMail has learned that the complex process of combining the two eyewear industry giants into a behemoth valued at nearly €50 billion will occur gradually over the next three to four years.

In an exclusive interview with VMail, Essilor co-COO John Carrier emphasized that for now, it will be business as usual for Essilor. “For the next four years, it’s not really accurate to call it a ‘merger,’” he said. “The businesses are going to be run separately, with their own management within a newly formed holding company known as EssilorLuxottica.”

Carrier, who is in charge of Essilor’s North American business, as well as R&D, Transitions Optical and a joint venture with Shamir Optical, is one of three Essilor co-COO’s, along with Paul du Saillant and Laurent Vacherot, who also took on the additional role of president last month.

As the two companies work through the process to close the deal, which was approved on Jan. 15, 2017 by both companies’ boards, a committee headed by Essilor chairman and CEO Hubert Sagnieres and Luxottica executive chairman Leonard Del Vecchio will oversee the “smooth and successful integration of the two companies,” according a joint statement released by the companies. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2017, the companies said.

Sounding some of the same themes touched on by Sagnieres and Del Vecchio in a conference call with financial analysts earlier in the day, Carrier called the proposed merger, reported earlier today by VMail “a beautiful combination of two leaders that are complementary. The combination of these businesses is a good way to generate more momentum for the industry,” said Carrier. “The reason we did this is to ‘give vision a voice,’ as Sagnieres said. “People are just recognizing that this is a great industry, a $100 billion dollar global industry, with big needs to be filled.”

Speaking about the synergies that the proposed merger between Luxottica, the largest frame supplier and Essilor, the largest lens supplier, Carrier noted that supply chain efficiencies for the two companies would be significantly improved. “Historically, frames and lenses have taken somewhat separate paths, with different players, a different supply chain and different cycles of innovation for new products,” he pointed out.

“It’s been a nice little game of hide and seek. But from a consumer standpoint it doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t buy the body of your car in one place, and the rest of it in another. We are looking at full eyewear.” Although the combined company could produce complete pairs of spectacles, he said it was too early to say when such a product might be marketed or through which distribution channels or brands it might be sold.

He noted that the development of frames and lenses has traditionally occurred separately, but that would change once the two companies have access to each other’s resources. “Silos aren’t good for innovation,” he said.

On the topic of innovation, Carrier said Essilor and Luxottica may collaborate on developing electronic eyewear, a growing field that both companies are pursuing. Luxottica’s Oakley division has already brought several types of electronic glasses to market, and is collaborating with Intel on new products, and Essilor’s FGX business unit will soon release new Foster Grant sunwear styles that can accommodate small cameras and other wearable devices.

“In the area of R&D, everything is becoming connected. There is no better window to the Cloud that the object that is already in front of your eyes, on your face. To just do this with just lenses or frames is limited and a bit unrealistic. The newly combined company intends to be one of the pioneers and leaders in this field.”

Although the proposed merger presents opportunities for both companies to expand distribution of their top brands such as Varilux and Crizal into new channels, Carrier said “We anticipate no change at this point in policies we have in place today.”

Carrier said Essilor has already opened a dialogue with customers to get their feedback and help them understand how they can take advantage of new resources and opportunities that the merger will create, and will soon announce plans to further engage with them.

“We believe in an open system,” he said. “This is an inclusive type of initiative where we are ready to partner with people who share our vision.”