Italian eyewear maker Luxottica is planning to hire 1,000 new workers, mainly in production and warehousing, as it adds manufacturing to a longstanding wholesale warehouse in metro Atlanta.
The publicly traded company has operated the Henry County property for 20 years, but the company announced on an earnings call in 2015 that it planned to double the size of its distribution center in McDonough, Ga.
Now, the facility will be more of a hub making and assembling lenses and frames to more quickly serve wholesale customers, including the independent opticians that make up a key share of the company’s business.
“Growing our footprint here represents a new step in serving our wholesale customers – we will soon be able to produce and deliver a complete pair of prescription frames of the highest quality and perfect fit anywhere in the U.S. within 24 to 48 hours. We’re proud to be a global company innovating right here in Atlanta,” said Fabrizio Uguzzoni, president of Luxottica Wholesale N.A., in a news release distributed by Gov. Nathan Deal’s office.
Based in the European fashion capital of Milan, Luxottica owns brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley and licenses such brands as Armani, Burberry, Bulgari, Chanel, Coach and many more.
The Atlanta Service Centre is said to have more than 2 million pieces of inventory on-site at any given time, and it’s the largest distribution hub the global company outside Italy and China, according to its website.
Georgia officials including economic development Commissioner Pat Wilson saw the decision as an endorsement of the state’s logistics infrastructure and status as a hub for e-commerce.The McDonough facility is less than 30 miles from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
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