One day after closing a $430 million transaction to buy Coastal Contacts, French eyewear giant Essilor has announced that Coastal Contacts' CEO Roger Hardy and president Gary Collins will be stepping down.
Hardy will stay on as an advisor, said John Carrier, who is the company's CEO for the Americas and is in charge of Essilor's ecommerce division.
"Roger has decided to invest his time in other activities but was kind enough to stay on as an advisor," Carrier told Business in Vancouver April 29.
Collins will also be leaving the company.
"It happened today," Carrier said. "We talked to Gary this morning and wanted to give him today to explain this to his friends and family. He has been very valuable for the company."
Roy Hessel will be Coastal Contacts' new top local executive.
He had been in charge of Essilor's ecommerce arm, which had included two ecommerce companies that Essilor bought in the past five years: Austin-based FramesDirect.com and Shanghai's EyeBuyDirect.com.
The multinational, which has about 55,000 employees worldwide, will continue its strategy of expanding by buying ecommerce companies, Carrier said.
"What I hope is that we will continue to accelerate the growth and profitability of Coastal. That should result in more high qualified, high-tech jobs for Coastal in B.C."
Before Essilor focused on ecommerce growth, it had primarily sold eyewear to professionals such as retailers and eye doctors.
Essilor has operated in Canada for decades and, before it bought the 700-employee Coastal, it had about 1,200 employees Canadawide.
Another 8,800 employees are based in the U.S.
"What we saw in Coastal was its scale," Carrier said. "We saw the presence in multiple countries and multiple products: contact lenses, glasses and sunglasses."
He estimated that there are 4.3 billion people around the world who need vision correction products and that 2.5 billion of them do not have easy access to those products.
"There is definitely the potential for ecommerce in developed or more mature markets but we also see potential in faster growing, emerging economies," said Carrier.
