ESSILOR (EPA:EL) Luxottica and Essilor form a joint-venture for the Australian and New Zealand markets

Transparency directive : regulatory news

08/02/2010 08:30

News Release

Luxottica and Essilor form a joint-venture for the Australian and
New Zealand markets

Milan, Italy and Charenton-le-Pont, France (February 8, 2010 - 8.30 a.m.) -
Luxottica Group (MTA: LUX; NYSE: LUX), a leader in the design, manufacturing
and distribution of premium fashion, luxury and sports eyewear, and Essilor
International (NYSE Euronext: EI), the world leader in ophthalmic lenses,
announced today that the two companies have formed a long-term joint-venture
for the Australian and New-Zealand markets.

Under the terms of the agreement, the joint-venture will manage Eyebiz Pty
Limited, Luxottica's Sydneybased optical lens finishing laboratory, which, as
a result of this alliance, will be majority-controlled by Essilor.

Eyebiz will continue to supply all of Luxottica's retail optical outlets in
Australia and New Zealand: OPSM, Budget Eyewear and Laubman & Pank.

The Eyebiz management team will remain in place and report to the new Board
comprised of Essilor International and Luxottica representatives.

About Luxottica Group

Luxottica Group is a leader in premium fashion, luxury and sports eyewear, with
over 6,200 optical and sun retail stores in North America, Asia-Pacific, China,
South Africa and Europe and a strong and well balanced brand portfolio.
Luxottica's key house brands include Ray-Ban, the best known sun eyewear brand
in the world, Oakley, Vogue, Persol, Oliver Peoples, Arnette and REVO, while
license brands include Bvlgari, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Donna Karan,
Polo Ralph Lauren, Prada, Salvatore Ferra gamo, Tiffany and Versace. In
addition to a global wholesale network covering 130 countries, the Group
manages leading retail brands such as LensCrafters and Pearle Vision in
North America, OPSM and Laubman & Pank in Australasia, LensCrafters in
Greater China and Sunglass Hut globally. The Group's products are designed and
manufactured in six Italy-based manufacturing plants, two whollyowned plants in
China and a sports sunglass production facility in the U.S. In 2009,
Luxottica Group posted consolidated net sales of EUR5.1 billion. Additional
information on the Group is available at www.luxottica.com.

About Essilor

Essilor International is the world leader in ophthalmic optical products,
offering a wide range of lenses under the fla gship Varilux(r), Crizal(r),
Essilor(r), Definity(r) and Xperio(TM) brands to correct myopia, hyperopia,
astigmatism and presbyopia. Essilor operates worldwide through a broad network
of mass-production facilities, lens finishing laboratories and local
distribution subsidiaries. The Essilor share trades on the Euronext Paris
market and is included in the CAC 40 index. Codes and symbols:
ISIN: FR 0000121667; Reuters: ESSI.PA; Bloomberg: EI:FP.

Luxottica media and investor relations contacts

Ivan Dompé                               Alessandra Senici
Group Corporate Communications Director  Group Investor Relations Director
Tel.: +39 (02) 8633 4726                 Tel.: +39 (02) 8633 4718
Email: Ivan.Dompe@luxottica.com          Email: InvestorRelations@Luxottica.com

Luca Biondolillo
SVP, International Corporate Communications
Tel.: +1 (516) 918 3100
Mobile: +1 (917) 518 4203
Email: LBiondolillo@us.luxottica.com
www.luxottica.com

Essilor investor relations and financial communications

Véronique Gillet,
SVP, Investor Relations
Sébastien Leroy
Manager, Financial communications
Tel.: +33 1 49 77 42 16
Email: invest@essilor.com
www.essilor.com

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