Luxottica wants to strengthen its direct presence in the so-called Sun-Belt countries. These are countries characterized by a high percentage of sunny days, a large tourism industry and a relatively fashion and luxury driven population. For that reason the company recently acquired 10 Spanish sunglasses stores. The stores will gradually be rebranded into Sunglass Hut stores. For years Luxottica operated rather carefully with the acquisition of optical stores in Europe and focused mainly on the Americas, Australia and the Far East. More recently it became less restrained and acquired a large part of the Italian chain Salmoiraghi & Vigano, now this group of stores and opened more Sunglass Hut stores like in the Dutch department stores Bijenkorf. Sunglasses are still growing business with huge potential for manufacturers and Sunglass Hut gains more and more market share by its own autonomous growth, the acquisition of other stores and the opening of new locations.
