Pearle Vision is an American chain of eye care stores. It is one of the largest franchised optical retailers in North America. The company was acquired by Luxottica (which has since merged with Essilor to form EssilorLuxottica), an Italian eyewear company, in 2004. As of December 31, 2018, Pearle Vision operated 110 corporate stores and had 419 franchises throughout North America.
History Pearle Vision was founded as Pearle Optical in 1961 by optometrist Stanley Pearle, in Savannah, Georgia. Pearle found success by offering an optometrist and optician in the same store, providing customers with comprehensive eye care. By 1963, the company had expanded to 47 locations and went public under the name Opticks, Incorporated. There were over 100 locations by 1966. In 1968, Pearle sold his business to Will Ross Hospital Supply Company of Milwaukee but stayed on as CEO and a member of the board.
In 1971, Pearle purchased a 17-store optical chain owned by Robert Hillman and Larry Kohan, which focused on offering one-hour eyeglasses service. Hillman and Kohan stayed on and helped to expand Pearle Vision nationwide. Will Ross was acquired by G.D. Searle, a pharmaceutical firm based in Chicago, in 1973.
Pearle began franchising its stores in 1981. In 1984, the company introduced its Managed Vision Care unit to provide vision care benefits to managed healthcare providers. By this time, the company had 800 Pearle Vision Centers in 39 states and more than 200 Texas State Optical stores. This amounted to 6% market share.
Pearle sold his stores to British conglomerate Grand Metropolitan in September 1985. Grand Met expanded Pearle Vision to more than 1,000 locations worldwide by 1990, but profits became elusive as the economy faltered and competition increased. A restructuring that eliminated 15% of the company's workforce at its Dallas headquarters helped to turn things around. It also introduced an incentives program for local managers to improve sales at their stores. By 1994, Pearle had dropped its number of US-based stores from 900 to 720.
In 1996, Grand Met sold the Pearle stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico to Cole National Corporation, which operated optical departments inside such retail stores as Sears, BJ's Wholesale Club and Target. In 1997, Cole National bought the 150-store NuVision chain in Michigan and converted them to the Pearle Vision name. GIB acquired the stores in Belgium and HAL Investments bought the stores in the Netherlands. A year later, HAL bought the Belgian stores from GIB and merged both chains into Pearle Benelux.
Luxottica, owner of LensCrafters, purchased Cole National in 2004 for $401 million. The deal brought together the two largest eyewear retailers in the United States. Soon after, Luxottica sold its share of Pearle Europe to HAL Holding NV for about $191 million. HAL later merged Pearle Europe into GrandVision in 2011. EssilorLuxottica acquired GrandVision In 2021.
The company's operations in California are affected by consumer protection statutes designed to protect consumers from Pearle's operations with optometrists and opticians in the same store, which presents a conflict of interest under California consumer law. On June 12, 2006, the Supreme Court of California ruled that Pearle Vision could not escape the reach of those statutes, and Pearle Vision's attempts to find a loophole through the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 were unavailing.People v. Cole, 38 Cal. 4th 964, 44 Cal. Rptr. 3d 261, 135 P.3d 669 (2006).
Pearle died in 2011 at the age of 92.
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