User:Burgmaestro/Thélios (company)

Thélios is an Italian eyewear manufacturing company headquartered in Longarone that designs, produces and distributes luxury eyewear products. The company was created and is a subsidiary of the French luxury group LVMH.

History
Historically, the LVMH group had always outsourced its eyewear production, except for the Louis Vuitton eyewear collections produced inhouse. In 2016, a Mediobanca report underlined how LVMH was downsizing its business with Safilo (Céline deal terminated in 2017, Dior contract extended 3 years instead of 5 or 7). The report estimated LVMH's eyewear business brought 350 millions euros to Safilo annually (30% of its revenues), and anticipated LVMH's decision to take its eyewear production inhouse.

Thélios was co-founded in 2017 by the French luxury group LVMH and the Italian eyewear manufacturer Marcolin. It started as an exclusive partnership. LVMH acquired 10% of Marcolin. The executive vice-chairman of Marcolin Giovanni Zoppas was appointed CEO of Thélios. its first manufacturing plant, the Thélios Manifattura, was inaugurated in May 2018 in Longarone and the construction of a second factory started in February 2019. Thélios was launched a few years after LVMH's main competitor, Kering, had launched its own eyewear production facilities, when luxury eyewear manufacturers peaked in the global luxury market.

In December 2021, LVMH bought Marcolin's 49% participation in Thélios, becoming the sole owner of the eyewear company, making Thélios a fully integrated division of LVMH. In October 2022, Thélios acquired Metallart, an artisanal metalworking eyewear company. In June 2023, Thélios expressed a strong interest in acquiring Safilo's main plant in Italy and changed its own logo to include the tagline "LVMH Eyewear Excellence".

Activity
Thélios designs, produces and distributes the eyewear products of LVMH's brands (Dior, Fendi, Celine, Givenchy, Loewe, Stella McCartney, Kenzo, Fred) and external brands (Bulgari since 2023 ).

Thélios is a contraction of the words Theia (Greek goddess of light and sight) and Helios (Greek god of sun).

Thélios has signed a 3-year collaboration (2022-2025) with the Venice Film Festival to be the event's official eyewear sponsor.