1849-1972: Essel and Silor
Essel was founded in 1849 (then-called
L’Association Fraternelle des Ouvriers Lunetiers) as a small network of eyeglass assembly workshops in Paris. It quickly expanded in the late 19th and early 20th century through the acquisition of factories in nearby Parisian neighbourhoods and in Eastern France.
Essel soon added frame design and trade to its activities. The firm successfully launched an innovative frame design in 1955 called Nylor which is still used today. The Nylor system introduced a thin nylon thread which embraces the lens and is fixed to the frame’s higher branch. Essel's major breakthrough came in 1959 with the revolutionary invention of
Varilux, the first ophthalmic progressive lens.
Silor first started under the name
Lissac in 1931 as a retailer of ophthalmic lenses and frames before becoming a lens manufacturer. In 1959, the same year
Essel invented the progressive lens,
Lissac made an important discovery of its own: the Orma 1000 lens, made from a lightweight and unbreakable material.
1972-1979: Beginning of Essilor
After many years as rivals,
Essel and
Silor merged on 1 January 1972 to form Essilor, the then third-largest ophthalmic optical firm in the world.
Essilor’s first year of existence was marked by two major events: the creation of Valoptec, a non-trading company composed of stock-holder managers which held half of the company’s capital stock, and the purchase of
Benoist-Bethiot, a French lens manufacturer specializing in the production of progressive lenses.
In the mid 1970s, Essilor focused on becoming a true optical group specializing in the plastic progressive lens. Many
subsidiary activities are first sold off, but in 1974, Essilor fused
Benoist-Bethiot with
Guilbert-Routit, creating a subsidiary called
BBGR. In 1975, the company was listed on the stock exchange. The innovations by
Essel and
Silor, Essilor’s predecessors, lead to the launch of the Varilux Orma in 1976 .
The late 1970s were marked by Essilor’s change in strategy of geographical expansion. By making the acquisition of manufacturing plants in the
United States, in
Ireland and in the
Philippines, Essilor began its transformation from being a mainly exporting company to being an international company.
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