ROME — Leonardo Del Vecchio, who founded the eyewear empire Luxottica in a trailer and turned an everyday object into a global fashion staple, becoming one of Italy’s richest men, died Monday, the eyewear company said. He was 87.
“It is with deep sadness that EssilorLuxottica announces the passing of President Leonardo Del Vecchio,” said a company statement, the name of which reflects a deal struck several years ago between Luxottica and France-based lens maker Essilor.
The statement said the EssilorLuxottica board would meet to “determine the next steps”.
Luca Zaia, the governor of Veneto, the northeastern region where Del Vecchio started his business in 1961 in a town in the Alpine valley, praised Del Vecchio as one of the “world’s most successful entrepreneurs.”
Italian media said Del Vecchio died in a hospital in Milan, where he was admitted several weeks ago. No cause of death was stated.
From his start in an orphanage in Milan, Del Vecchio became one of the richest industrialists in Italy. Luxottica globalizes fashion eyewear and makes frames for dozens of great fashion names, including Armani, Burberry, and Chanel.
On the Forbes list of the richest persons, Del Vecchio and his family were number 60 last year, with a net worth of $24.5 billion.
Del Vecchio’s father sold vegetables on the streets of Milan but died before he was born. The youngest of four children, in his twenties, he worked as an apprentice making eyeglass frame parts before starting his own business. He moved from Milan to the village of Agordo in the Dolomites in 1961, taking advantage of a free land offer to provide jobs and discourage young people from moving to the cities for work.
What started as a trailer business has steadily grown into a sprawling complex, a 90-minute drive from Venice, employing thousands of people and producing tens of thousands of frames every day.
Del Vecchio found gold by turning the rather mundane necessities of life into “designer frames” for prescription glasses and sunglasses. Luxottica’s corporate website lists 33 top brands, including Valentino, Prada, Michael Kors, Coach, and Brooks Brothers.
Two steps as he expanded his business were widely regarded as crucial. One strategy saw him invest in retail and open Luxottica stores. The other strategy led him to take over, most notably that of the American company Ray-Ban, in 1999, a brand that gained cachet under the company’s marketing approach.
Del Vecchio’s empire expanded with a deal announced in 2018 with France’s Essilor. That agreement created a huge entity with over 140,000 employees in 150 countries.
But Del Vecchio preserved his family’s financial vehicle, the Delfin holding company. In its last configuration, Del Vecchio owned 25% of its capital. Under Delfin’s umbrella, are also significant participation in banking and insurance companies.
Unlike some of Italy’s flashier industrialists, such as TV mogul Silvio Berlusconi and Fiat’s Gianni Agnelli, Del Vecchio kept a low profile, to the point of calling Italian media “Mr. Nobody.”
Corriere della Sera quoted him daily about his early mentors in the trade: “They left me several important lessons – discipline, method, and competence.”
Del Vecchio preached simplicity. “For years, my lunch was based on boiled cabbage. The smell reminds me of the great effort, the dream that I had to do something that belonged to me, even if it was small, but where I could use my ideas and skills,” the Milan daily quoted him as saying.
He was unaffected by the corruption scandals that shook Italian business and political power in the early 1990s.
“I don’t like to pay taxes, but I like to sleep at night,” Del Vecchio told The Associated Press in an interview at the company’s headquarters in 1995.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi, an economist who heads the European Central Bank, paid tribute from Germany, where he attended the G-7 summit.
“A champion of Italian entrepreneurship for more than 60 years, Del Vecchio created one of the largest companies in the country, starting from humble origins,” Draghi said in a written statement. The industrialist “brought the community of Agordo and the entire country to the center of the world of innovation,” the Italian prime minister said.
Del Vecchio was married three times, including twice to his second wife, Nicoletta Zampillo. He had six children: a son Claudio and two daughters from his first marriage to Luciana Nervo; a son, Leonardo Maria, from his marriage to Zampillo; and two sons, Luca and Clemente, with Sabina Grossi, a former investor in the group La Repubblica newspaper reported.
