Marcolin SpA is an Italian

eyewear Eyewear is a term used to refer to all devices worn over both of a person's eyes, or occasionally a single eye, for one or more of a variety of purposes. Though historically used for vision improvement and correction, eyewear has also evolved into ...

manufacturer founded in

Veneto Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...

and headquartered in

Longarone Longarone is a town and ''comune'' on the banks of the Piave in the province of Belluno, in northeast Italy. It is situated from Belluno. 4,642 people work all together in Longarone, which is 112.62% of the total population, with most actual in ...

. Started in 1961 by Giovanni Marcolin Coffen, the eyewear manufacturer owns and licenses twenty-five different brands, including

Tom Ford Thomas Carlyle Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched Tom Ford (brand), his eponymous brand in 2005, having previously been the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent (brand), Yves Sai ...

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

Skechers Skechers USA, Inc. is an American multinational footwear and apparel company. Headquartered in Manhattan Beach, California, it was founded in 1992 and is the third largest footwear brand in the world. History Skechers was founded in 1992 by R ...

Christian Louboutin Christian Louboutin (; born 7 January 1964) is a French fashion designer. His stiletto footwear incorporates shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature. Initially a freelance designer for fashion houses, he started his shoe salo ...

and

Max Mara Max Mara (Italian aks 'ma:ra is an Italian fashion business that markets upscale ready-to-wear clothing. It was established in 1951 in Reggio Emilia by Achille Maramotti (7 January 1927 – 12 January 2005). As of October 2024 the company ha ...

. As of 2022, Marcolin had annual revenues of around €547 million. The group's annual revenues have grown every year from 2013 to 2022, with the exception of 2020. The company is presently owned by

PAI Partners PAI Partners is a French private equity firm based in Paris. It is one of the oldest firms in the sector, with its origins dating back to Paribas Affaires Industrielles, historically the principal investment arm of Paribas, which started opera ...

, a French private equity firm.

History

Marcolin was founded in 1961, in

, by Giovanni Marcolin. The company, originally known as Fabbrica artigiana, started by manufacturing gold-laminated temples on eyewear. The company expanded to the United States in 1968, with offices in France, Switzerland, and Germany soon following. By the 1980s, Marcolin was manufacturing over a million frames per year. By 2012, Marcolin was Italy's third largest eyewear manufacturer, behind only

Leonardo Del Vecchio Leonardo Del Vecchio (22 May 1935 – 27 June 2022) was an Italian billionaire businessman, the founder and chairman of Luxottica, the world's largest producer and retailer of glasses and frames, with 77,734 employees and over 8,000 stores. At t ...

Luxottica Luxottica Group S.p.A. is an Italian glasses, eyewear multinational corporation headquartered in Milan. As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails its eyewear brands through its own subsidiaries ...

and the

Safilo Group Safilo Group S.p.A. (acronym of ''Società Azionaria Fabbrica Italiana Lavorazione Occhiali'') is an Italian company that designs, produces, and distributes prescription frames, sunglasses, sports eyewear, ski goggles and helmets, and cycling he ...

. It was around this time that a majority stake in Marcolin was acquired by the French private equity firm

, initially at 78% but increasing to 83% in December 2019. By 2018, Marcolin has claimed to sell 14.6 million eyeglasses that year. Marcolin's eyewear ventures led it into a partnership with the French luxury conglomerate

LVMH LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French multinational holding company and conglomerate that specializes in luxury goods and has its headquarters in Paris, France. The company was formed in 1987 through the ...

, which partnered with Marcolin to found Thélios, an in-house eyewear manufacturing company, with Marcolin holding a 49% stake in the venture, and LVMH further purchasing a 10% equity in Marcolin. The two companies split in December 2021, with Marcolin buying back LVMH's stake in the company and separately selling its remaining stake in Thélios to LVMH, making Thélios a wholly-owned subsidiary of LVMH. That same year, Marcolin acquired all of Ic! berlin, a German eyewear manufacturer. In 2024, Marcolin's private equity owners sought a valuation for the manufacturer, attracting takeover bids and interest from various companies across the sector. With a PAI valuation at around €1.3 billion, the leading bidders for the company were

Kering Kering S.A. () is a French multinational holding company specializing in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris. It owns the brands Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Creed, Maui Jim, and Alexander McQueen. The timber-tradin ...

and

EssilorLuxottica EssilorLuxottica SA is a Franco-Italian Vertical integration, vertically integrated multinational corporation, multinational holding company registered in Charenton-Le-Pont and headquartered in nearby Paris. It designs, produces and markets opht ...

, though found potential buyers in Safilo, Marchon Eyewear of the US, Italy's De Rigo, and the Hong Kong-based private equity firm FountainVest Partners. LVMH through Thélios was the sole major eyewear-focused company not mentioned as a potential suitor for Marcolin.

Brands

Marcolin's proprietary and licensed brands include: *

Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F) is an American lifestyle store, lifestyle retailer, founded in 1892 which focuses on contemporary clothing targeting customers in their early 20's to mid 40's. Headquartered in New Albany, Ohio, the company operate ...

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* Gant * GCDS *

Guess Guessing is the act of drawing a swift conclusion, called a guess, from data directly at hand, which is then held as probable or tentative, while the person making the guess (the guesser) admittedly lacks material for a greater degree of certaint ...

Harley-Davidson Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression along with i ...

* Ic! berlin * J Landon * Kenneth Cole * Marciano *

* Max&Co * Pucci *

* Timberland *

Tod's Tod's S.p.A. is an Italian fashion house specialized in footwear, apparel, and related accessories headquartered in Marche. It is majority controlled by businessman Diego Della Valle. Founded in 1920 by Filippo Della Valle, a cobbler, it was co ...

* Web Eyewear *

Zegna Ermenegildo Zegna N.V., also known as Zegna Group () or the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, is an Italian luxury fashion house headquartered in Milan. It was founded in 1910 by Ermenegildo Zegna in Trivero, Biella, in the Piedmont region of northern It ...

References

{{Reflist Eyewear brands of Italy Italian companies established in 1961 Companies based in Veneto Longarone