Marco Procacciante, founder of the Vision Group eyewear distribution network, has won a business accolade for “transforming a consortium of optometrists into a modern group that holds almost a quarter of the Italian market”.
The company, started in 1989, aims to ensure 85% of the Italian population can reach its shops in 15 minutes. The target is to achieve that within the next seven years.
The Brave Entrepreneur 2023 award, organised by publishers Class Editori, recognises people who have started companies from scratch to challenge sectors dominated by multinationals.
Vision Group has 200 directly owned stores and 300 franchised under the VisionOttica brand. Last year the consortium took over 174 stores after acquiring the GrandVision Group.
The awards ceremony was held on 29 March in Milan. Marco said: “We were born as a movement of optometrists motivated by the desire to adopt common strategies towards the market and to collaborate with the medical profession and the industry to allow independent opticians to compete with the big chains and today we are the first optical distribution center in Italy with over 900 employees and a turnover that exceeded €150m in 2022.
“Our mission has always been to offer quality products capable of responding to the different needs of the consumer, to guarantee their visual well-being.”
Vision Group has a market share of over 22%, with approximately 2,700 optical centres throughout the country, including 2,200 operated as a purchasing group. VisionOttica will have more than 400 stores by the end of 2023. The Arcadia SGR investment fund holds a 46% stake in the group.
Topic: Optical News
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