Six insights on the EssilorLuxottica ELevate programme

Bringing together the once-separate Essilor and Luxottica brands, EssilorLuxottica’s new ELevate partnership programme, which is built on the key pillars of clinical excellence, connect, accelerate and differentiate, aims to align rewards, professional training, business support and clinical expertise in one easy to use customer portal.

After the programme was unveiled to practitioners in an all-day showcase (10 September, The Vox, Birmingham), OT sat down with EssilorLuxottica’s marketing director for northern Europe, Ewelina Kawnik, and general manager UK and Ireland, Giona Riccetti, to find out more.

1 Why 2026 was the year to launch

Extensive feedback was gathered from existing customers before the ELevate programme was designed, Kawnik and Riccetti told OT.

“Customer feedback played an important role in shaping ELevate. As we listened to them, it became clear that the progress we have made in integrating the business since 2018 created an opportunity to simplify and strengthen the experience we offer, including when it comes to its partnership programmes. ELevate is the result of that journey, and the reason why now felt like the right time to bring everything together under one programme,” Kawnik said.

She added: “As the organisation evolved, we saw an opportunity to make the experience even simpler and more integrated for our customers.”

Riccetti explained: “While initially we had been running the lenses and the frames parts of the organisations in parallel, we are now fully integrated.”

Now EssilorLuxottica has sales teams in each of the six regions of the UK, providing customers with a single point of contact for both lenses and frames, Riccetti said.

He noted: “There is a lot in the organisation that has changed, and this was the perfect moment to go one step further.”

The new structure also allows for a simplified product portfolio for customers, Kawnik believes.

2 A focus on connection

One of the four pillars of the ELevate programme is ‘connect,’ which Kawnik describes as being “all about building the community.”

This involves networking events where practitioners can share their insights, she said.

She also wants customers to share their feedback with EssilorLuxottica at these events, on an ongoing basis.

“It will give them the opportunity to help us shape the programme. This is just the starting point, and we have the intention to continuously improve it,” Kawnik told OT.

Riccetti emphasised: “This is not a brochure. This is here to stay.”

Relationships are at the centre of the new offering, Kawnik said.

She noted: “We are working in the optical industry, and it is a very relationship-driven industry. It is all about relationships: between us and our customers, but also between them and their customers.

“We want to support their growth and do what we can to help them to secure their business, to really grow with us.”

She added: “It’s about loyalty for their patients.”

We want to help customers to differentiate. We want to elevate their position, because we understand that in this health revolution, they can be at the frontline of care

3 Digital marketing identified as an area of support

A key offering under the ‘accelerate’ pillar is our website evaluation service, Riccetti said.

“We get an agency to crawl the website and score it, and then offer precise action points for improvement,” he told OT.

Kawnik said: “Our opticians told us that they are really struggling with digital marketing, which is of course a hot topic these days, and is very hard to stay up to date with.

“We really want to provide them with services and support, to take this stress from them, but also to deliver automated services to help, for example, with social media presence.”

It is also “about how they can help strengthen their offering via our ‘differentiate’ pillar through accreditations with our amazing brands like Essilor, Ray-Ban, Oakley to name a few,” she added.

4 There is a “revolution” in technology and healthcare, EssilorLuxottica believes

Health tech “is disruptive by nature, and we are at the centre of this as a leader in the industry,” Riccetti believes.

He explained: “We want to help customers to differentiate. We want to elevate their position, because we understand that in this health revolution, they can be at the frontline of care.”

This was seen in the pandemic, when primary eye care was able to pick up work whilst the NHS was stretched, Riccetti noted.

He told OT: “We need a more widespread healthcare system, and we need more connection. Our vision is to build that and to put the optician at the frontline of that, and connect the dots with ophthalmologists, doctors, and specialists in the future.”

Riccetti emphasised: “An eye test can reveal much more than just vision correction, and much more into the health of a patient.”

5 Patients at the centre

Riccetti made it clear that, whilst the ELevate programme has been built for EssilorLuxottica’s customers, the patient remains at the forefront of the organisation’s considerations.

“We envision an elevated experience for patients: a new ecosystem where the information flows, and where the patient is at the centre, and we can help our customers to grow and our patients to be well looked after,” Riccetti said.

He added: “This is the feedback that we get today: there is no real connection between eye doctors and optometrists today.

“Step-by-step, our vision is to bring this together by closing the gap through continuous education and by providing access to our latest research, to help add value for the patient and for the practice.”

6 Opportunities in smart glasses and prescription lenses

Kawnik thinks that artificial intelligence (AI) glasses from brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley should become patients’ first choice, even when prescription lenses are required.

“They should be, and they can be, our first pair of glasses for daily usage,” she said, adding: “Wider adoption of this category should come, because these glasses are amazing.”

EssilorLuxottica is working with Meta to make AI glasses more useful and functional, and to further support wearers in their daily routine, including in undertaking activities hands-free, Kawnik told OT.

The next stage of EssilorLuxottica’s plans includes encouraging practitioners to sell AI glasses as the customer’s first pair of glasses, with corrective lenses included, Kawnik said.

She explained: “This is really a huge opportunity and the sky is the limit. We were the first mover in the industry, introducing these glasses to the world. I think there is unlimited potential for this new category.”

Riccetti noted that EssilorLuxottica brands are not the only brands creating and selling AI glasses.

“Last year, the group sold millions of pairs of AI glasses. This is a revolution that is happening. It is not going to go away,” he said, acknowledging: “We are not alone in this space. There is already competition from many angles all around the world, and big brands are coming up.”

Riccetti emphasised: “We don’t want the optician to lose this race – we want them to be on board.”

The role of the optician doesn’t change, Riccetti noted – it will always be focused on identifying what patients’ needs are and offering them the most helpful solution possible.

“With AI eyewear, it is exactly the same. It is not about selling the tech. It is about showing how this product can help the clients in their everyday life,” he said.

Lead image: EssilorLuxottica’s ELevate launch event (L–R): Ewelina Kawnik, marketing director, North Europe, and Richard Davies, iECP sales director, UK and Ireland

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