Global eyewear company celebrates families

Global eyewear company EssilorLuxottica celebrated Family Day Oct. 19 at its headquarters on Branch View Lane in Farmers Branch.

The party was the first Family Day since the Essilor, a French corporation specializing in the manufacturing of ophthalmic lenses, and Luxottica, an Italian corporation specializing in eyewear, merged in 2018.

Nearly 1,800 people RSVP’d for the event, which included food, music, bounce houses, carnival rides and a hay wagon ride.

EssilorLuxottica shut down its production lines for the day so all employees and their families could partipate, said Laura Stewart, communications director.

“Today we wanted our employees to take advantages of this event,” she said.

The company employs 1,200 people at its Farmers Branch location, more than 500 of whom work four shifts in the optical lab.

EssilorLuxottica owns lens technology including Transitions, eyewear brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley, many retail stores including LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, Target Optical and Glasses.com. In addition, it owns EyeMed, a vision health insurance provider.