Hello, everybody. This is Giorgio Iannella from the IR team. Thank you for joining EssilorLuxottica Q3 Revenue Management Call. The group's CFO, Stefano Grassi, will walk you through the revenue performance of the latest quarter. After his presentation, there will be a thirty-minute Q&A session. If you want to make a question, please press star followed by five. We kindly ask you to limit your questions to a maximum of two. With that, I hand it over to Stefano.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to our Third Quarter Sales Results. EssilorLuxottica, in Q3, posts a revenue up 4% at constant currency, which leads to a first nine months of 2024, with top line up 4.9% at constant currency. When we look at our revenue at current exchange results, we're looking revenue up 2.3%, with a gap between current and constant exchange results that is broadly unchanged compared to what we've seen in the first six months of 2024. The main reason for that is the U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar, that during the month of July and August, in particular, devalued quite strongly against Europe. The macroeconomic environment continues to be quite challenging, in particular in a couple of countries, the U.S. and China.
But despite that, we had a strong delivery in both B2B Professional Solutions and Direct-to-Consumer, both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. On the Direct-to-Consumer side, we deliver a mid-single-digit pace, with a double digit in Asia Pacific, with a double digit in Latin America, and a strong contribution from EMEA. While we move to the B2B Professional Solutions , we experienced a deceleration in Q3 compared to the trend that we've seen in the first six months of 2024 , and the main reason for that was a bit softer results in Greater China during the course of the third quarter. But now, as usual, let's start the journey across the four different geographies, and as usual, let's begin with the biggest one, North America. In North America, we experienced a slight acceleration compared to the Q2 delivery.
The overall top line was up 1.6% at constant currency, and on the B2B side, the comments are gonna be quite similar to the one that I shared with you during the second quarter. We had a delivery that was positive on both frames and lenses. On the frame side, I would say we continue to see strong demand from Ray-Ban Meta. We continue to see strong demand on prescription frame, while the sun part of our business faced a bit of a soft demand, and this is not new, we've already seen in the previous quarter, in particular on the department stores. When we look at our lens business, the premium part of our lens brand portfolio was positive, with Varilux, with Eyezen, they were very much instrumental to drive the growth during the course of our third quarter.
And the nice thing is that we see that growth with a pretty good balance between price mix and volume. A quick touch on the channels. Our key account channel deliver a solid mid-single-digit growth in Q3, while on the independent side, we still observe a polarized picture. On one side, the eye care practitioners that are part of our Vision Source program, deliver a good mid-single-digit growth, with strong demand and product supply on frames, on lenses, on instruments, while on the other side, our remaining part of independent customer base was actually trending more on the negative territory in a market that I want to remind you, continues to be still challenging and highly sensitive to price point. Moving now to Direct-to-Consumer. The third quarter comp sales were actually the best comp sales in North America for the year so far.
Target Optical deliver a mid-single-digit comps. LensCrafters and Pearle Vision both deliver low single-digit comps. A quick touch on sun. Comp sales overall was still negative in Q3, but if I look at my glass half full for a second, I'm pretty pleased about the performance of Sunglass Hut in September, where we turned comp sales into the positive territory, very much driven by the international Sunglass Hut location, and what I can tell you, that as we enter now in the fourth quarter, the month of October was actually positive as well, so we see good traction happening now for almost two months, which is a nice lead-in as we approach in the holiday season, but now, as usual, let's move to Europe and the EMEA region that deliver 5.6% at constant currency. That is another strong quarter for the region.
We are looking at the fourteenth consecutive quarter of positive growth in EMEA. High single-digit delivering Direct-to-Consumer, mid-single-digit on the B2B Professional Solutions. Most of the key countries recorded positive growth in Q3. Eastern Europe, Turkey were double-digit. Italy, Middle East were high single-digit. While France, on the other side, was really the only country that had a bit of a deceleration due to the challenging month of August, and many of you know the reason why, and that is related to the Olympics. That clearly created a lot of constraints to the ordinary course of business. Now, if we look a bit more closely at our Professional Solutions side, our independents were very much the channel that drove the growth in EMEA region, and that was true for both frames and lenses.
In particular, the lens part of our business had a strong quarter with volume as the main driver, but also with price mix that nicely support our volume growth. On the frame side, I would say good prescription business, good sun, with luxury and the premium fashion part of our portfolio that were very much the key driver of our growth. Before we move to the Direct-to-Consumer, there are another couple of things that I want to share with you. First of all, in 2024 , in the Silmo Exhibition, our two key innovation, Transitions GEN S and Ray-Ban Meta, won the prestigious Silmo d'Or respectively, in the category of vision and technological innovation in eyewear. And that proves, once again, the EssilorLuxottica leadership in product innovation. The last remark that I want to make today, it's related to the Olympics.
We all have seen the great visibility that the Olympic Games have worldwide, and within the Olympics, the Oakley brand had an exceptional, exceptional visibility, in front of millions, hundreds of millions of people, outfitting 2,000 athletes and becoming one of the 10 most visible and impactful brands at these Olympic Games. Direct-to-Consumer now. The optical retail business deliver high single-digit comps on top of a strong quarter last year, with double-digit in Salmoiraghi & Viganò , with double-digit in Turkey, with double-digit in the optical banner in Ukraine, and a high single-digit delivery in Netherlands, in Belgium, in Finland, and a mid-single-digit delivery in Vision Express in United Kingdom. Now, when we look at our synergy realization, we're pretty happy with the progression that we're seeing in GrandVision.
As of today, approximately 70% of the lenses supplied in GrandVision come from EssilorLuxottica, and on the frame side, we have that percentage to be around 80%, including our proprietary exclusive brands. Last but not least, our sun retail. I would say we had a strong summer season here. Several countries, whether I look at Spain or DACH, whether I look at the Netherlands or Turkey, the Middle East or U.K, I feel good about this quarter and in general about the sun season. Probably one exception, that is France, and that is very much due to, I would say, slightly negative trend that we've seen in department stores in France. Now, let's move east. Switch gear, Asia Pacific, 5% delivery at constant currency. I remind you that we had a pretty tough comparison base.
Last year in Asia Pacific, our delivery was 12% growth rate. In the region, Japan delivered double-digit growth. India was on a high single-digit territory, while Australia and Korea were on the mid-single digit growth. In China, we landed in a slightly positive situation in Q3 in terms of revenue growth, but clearly, this is a deceleration compared to the trend that we've seen together in the previous quarter. I would say a couple of things on China. On the positive side, I think the resilience of Stellest lenses, and in general of myopia solution, has been pretty impressive. Stellest in Q3 deliver a growth in excess of 40%, with approximately 2 million pair of Stellest lenses that were delivered so far in China.
On the other side, I think when we look at Hong Kong, for example, we reported negative sales, and I believe that we have in Hong Kong right now a structural lack of touristic traffic, consumer spending, and that obviously doesn't help to grow our revenue base there. On the other side, also, the Balmain brand. The Balmain brand, during the course of a third quarter, experienced a quite material deceleration, very much driven by a weak sellout data. Brief touch on Direct-to-Consumer, I would say pleasing to see OPSM deliver in the quarter with comps that were in a mid-single digit territory, and we enter now with a very similar quarter trend in the Q4, and that's obviously very promising as we approach the high seasonality.
On the other side, our retail footprint in China struggle a bit with negative comp sales, and I would say that was mainly driven by weak traffic across the China country. Latin America, the best performing region, up 10.1% during the course of the third quarter. In the LatAm region, we clearly benefit and continue to benefit from the tailwinds of Argentina. But in any case, all the key countries in the region, like Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Chile, they all deliver solid growth in Q3, with a pretty good balance between the two distribution channel, Professional Solutions and Direct-to-Consumer. On the B2B side, I would say happy with both frames and lenses in Brazil, while on the Hispanic LatAm, we were double digit on both optical and sun frames.
While the soft lens part of Hispanic LatAm was a bit softer in Q3 due to a slow pace that we saw in Mexico, in particular on a couple of key accounts. Moving to the Direct-to-Consumer, I would say double digit comps in the optical retail banner, with price mix that were very much driving the growth as we reshape the overall assortment of lenses and frames, similar to what we've done in Europe with GrandVision, and that clearly is driving price mix up. While in the Sunglass Hut part, we have a double digit in Andes and in Brazil, and a low single digit in Mexico. But now, before I hand it over to the operator for the Q&A session, let me just close out today's session with a couple of remarks.
We are entering the fourth quarter, conscious of the assets we are deploying across the different markets. We're ready to face a holiday season, and insurance week, a Black Friday, with a team that is very much committed and prepared for a strong execution. On top of that, we are consolidating from day one in the fourth quarter, both Supreme and Heidelberg, which will give us an additional lift in our revenue profile. So I can tell you, and share already today, that we have an expectation of revenue acceleration compared to the first, to the trend that you've seen for the first nine months of 2024 . With that, let me hand it back to the operator to start the Q&A session. Thank you.
... Ladies and gentlemen, we will now start the Q&A session. Our first question comes from Luca Solca, Bernstein.
Yes, good evening, thank you very much for taking my questions. I would like to ask about the status of your collaboration on smart glasses. We saw that you extended the partnership with Meta, and that you've been launching a new version of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. I think the CEO had also been talking about potential stronger tie-up with Meta, with shares being bought by Meta, and also about the potential ability to work with other players like Google. I wonder if you could expand a bit on that? And this would be my first question.
When it comes to the situation in retail, I wonder if you could maybe give us a few signposts and give us some quantitative elements as far as like for like growth is concerned in the most important chains, if you could. Thank you very much indeed.
Good evening, Luca. So let me take both of your questions. So the first one with respect to Meta. We are pleased to enlarge the duration of the partnership that we have with Meta and is a partnership that will be a journey that we'll do together around wearable. It's a partnership that will last quite a few years, I would say, that will take us to the next decade, and it's a partnership that will also encompass, presumably, I would say, will encompass other brands. It is a partnership that has certain aspects of exclusivity, that for obvious reason, we can't disclose.
But I would say if I have to judge by the results that we've seen so far with Ray-Ban Meta, the success that Ray-Ban Meta has had in many geographies, in every geographies, I would say, where it's commercialized and sold, I should say that we're very, you know, hopeful and confident that this is gonna be a very successful journey together. The other part of your question is about the shares that was, you know, mentioned during last time that we got together in H1. We have nothing to report at this stage. The second part of your question relates to the retail performance so far. I mean, generally speaking, the trends are pretty clear. Let me say, optical retail banner very strong in Europe.
We continue the journey with the GrandVision. The integration is marching at a high speed. We see that journey of elevating the consumer journey in our optical retail banner going in the right direction. In North America, I would say consistent pace. Consistent pace, which is a good thing. LensCrafters low single-digit comp. It is exactly where we want it to be. You know, nice lift in Target Optical performance, mid-single digits. It's now becoming a good consistent trend over there. Probably, you know, the Sunglass part, it's a kind of two velocity story, right?
We have that soft demand in North America, but good September, good month of October so far, so we're very hopeful, as I mentioned before, that we're gonna get into the holiday season with a very nice lead in, considering where are we in the month of October. For Sunglass Hut has been a good month, a good quarter. Europe. In Europe, we've seen pretty much throughout the different geographies a good trend, good demand. I think the job that the team has done to improve the performance it's remarkable. So, you know, Australia, we commented the good performance of OPSM, very happy with that. And really, the only area where I would probably see a bit of a deceleration trend is the retail footprint in China.
But again, I mentioned before, and I say it again now, consumer demand and the macro environment that is probably more challenging than what we've seen in the second quarter in China is very much driving that direction.
Our next question comes from Chiara Battistini, J.P. Morgan.
Hello, good evening, Stefano and Giorgio. Thank you for taking my questions. The first question I have on Europe, could we come back, please, on the performance of DTC versus Professional Solutions? And notably, you've mentioned that Professional Solutions slowed in Q3. Could you expand on what drove that deceleration? Was it anything related to timing, any more cautious ordering? Anything more on that would be very helpful. And again, on Europe and the rollout of Stellest, could you please remind us now, in how many countries you're present, how that's going, and sort of the pace of acceleration of that business in Europe? Thank you.
... Good evening, Chiara. So direct to consumer versus professional solution. I think direct to consumer, you know, we commented in Europe, a good trend. On professional solution, I would probably mention two things in Europe. One, situation in France, I think we all seen the restriction that probably some of you had lived in the day-to-day life due to the Olympics in the month of August, and really in the last probably 10, 15 days of July. So that had obviously a natural constraint in the evolution of business in France. But we're not concerned about it, as I think the job that the team has done in Europe and in France in particular in the last few years, it's remarkable. And again, it's important that we highlight that.
Probably there's another thing that I wanna mention in Europe, because sometimes we tend to observe the single quarter. In EMEA, we had the last twelve consecutive quarter growth above or equal to 5%. So, I mean, we are looking at a region that has been consistently delivering 5% or more in the last twelve consecutive quarters. So I would define this a pretty impressive track record. When we look at the Professional Solutions side, there is probably on top of France, another thing that I would mention, and it's Turkey. In Turkey, we've seen a little bit more of a stabilization on the trend, but Turkey is still growing in double digits, so no reason to be concerned over there. Stellest in EMEA.
Stellest in EMEA, it's obviously a nice story from a growth standpoint. We're growing in excess of 70%, so we're pleased with that. And just to give you an order of magnitude, Chiara, you're looking at Stellest as being around 10% of the size that we have in China, and that's something that can start giving you a bit of a flavor and an idea how to put in perspective the expansion and also the growth of Stellest in EMEA.
Our next question comes from Grace Smalley, Morgan Stanley.
Hi, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. My first one would just be on Nuance, please, if you just update us on the progress there and your anticipated launch timing, and also how you're thinking about the Nuance opportunity following Apple's announcement last month, and then my second question would just be a clarification on the Q4 comments that you made at the end of the prepared remarks. I believe you said that you expect an acceleration in revenue growth in Q4, including also the consolidation impact from the recent acquisitions. Could you just comment if you also expect an acceleration in revenue growth on an organic basis, just given your comments on the Olympic headwinds that have now faded, and also your positive comments on the exit rate in U.S. Sun in September and October? Thank you very much.
Good evening, Grace. First question on Nuance. We confirming what we already shared. We do expect to launch Nuance between the end of this year, early next year, and we are in the process of getting the clearance from the FDA. Fourth quarter comment, we do expect an acceleration, and we do expect that acceleration in the trend versus the trend that you've seen in Q3 with the impact of Heidelberg and Supreme, but also organically, without considering the impact of Supreme and Heidelberg.
Our next question comes from Louise Singlehurst, Goldman Sachs.
Hi, good evening, Stefano, Giorgio. Thank you for taking my questions. I'll stick to two. Just on Europe, and I know there's been a bit of commentary on this already, but the deceleration and the key factors, I wonder if you can just specifically talk about optical within that, because obviously, the double digit in Q2 to mid-single digit-ish for Q3, I'm guessing. And I know you've highlighted France, but I just wondered, ex France, to your point just now, can we also expect an acceleration in Q4, all else equal? And then my second question was just with regards to North America, and you're obviously confident enough to highlight in the statement and the commentary about Sunglass Hut turning positive in September, and also that's continued into October. Do you think it's time now that we can actually...
You know, do you think we are genuinely turning a corner now for sustained, positive momentum in sun? I know it's a big question to ask, but it'd be great to get your comments. Thank you.
Hello, Louise. Let me answer both of your questions. I think the first one that you were talking about is in EMEA, and I would take the optical question on the angle of the direct to consumer. If I'm wrong, please have a follow-up. But the way we see the third quarter, it's still a very good story from a GrandVision standpoint. I think generally speaking, we've seen positive growth in all the key markets. Probably, we've seen a bit more softness in the U.K. with Vision Express. We had a tough comparison base, in all honesty, so that's probably the only explanation that I have for you today. And in France, it's very much related to the Olympics.
We're already seeing good traction in the month of October, and in general, we stay confident that we're gonna see a good performance also during the course of the fourth quarter. We look at, for example, the subscription business, and that's obviously very promising for us, because the subscription business today represents about 15%, one five, of the GrandVision revenue, of the optical retail revenue. That number was 10%, so it grew almost 50% year- over- year. That part obviously creates a natural link with consumer, and we believe it's gonna, you know, ramp up further more.
Just as of today, we're running slightly less than 20 countries with the subscription model, and I believe between the end of 2025, early 2026, we're gonna have the entire optical retail banners leveraging the subscription model, which so far has been very successful. Sunglass Hut North America, whether we are turning the corner or not, you know, let's wait for a quarter to see and comment that. But for sure, we've seen a different trend, beginning in September and through the month of October. We've seen that improvement, in particular, on the Sunglass Hut locations that are more exposed to tourism. So, you know, 10% of our revenue base...
of the network reps which represent 20% of our revenue base for Sunglass Hut, those are the ones that are usually more successful in the month of September and October. But again, I think the team is very committed, and I think you're gonna have a pretty exciting holiday season.
Our next question comes from Domenico Ghilotti, Equita.
Good afternoon to everybody. The first question is on the Ray-Ban Meta. So if you can share with us some additional color on the performance on your current production capacity, and if you expect sooner or later also the AI feature that you have already presented in the U.S. market to be offered also in Europe. And the second question is a comment on the stake that you disclosed on Nikon. So if you can comment on it.
Good evening, Domenico. Buonasera. Ray-Ban Meta, very happy about the performance that we've seen. I mean, it's an overall success story that we've seen. Just to give you an idea, it is not just a success in the U.S., where it's obvious, but it's also success here in Europe. Just to give you an idea, in 60% of the Ray-Ban stores in Europe, in EMEA, Ray-Ban Meta is the best seller in those stores. So it's something that it's extremely pleasing. Clearly, in the U.S., the fact that we have that killer application that is represented by the artificial intelligence, it's a big plus. And to be honest with you, we can't wait to see that application to be also rolled out in Europe.
I think it would be extremely beneficial to consumer. We start seeing some easing on the application, for example, through a chatbot in the U.K., but obviously, we wanna see and wait for the entire rollout of that application to the remainder part of EMEA. No comment to the stake in Nikon. It's a good partnership for us. We have a lot of things that we're doing together, and you've seen EssilorLuxottica in the past to take you know shareholding positions, minority shareholding position in some of our other partners. I think it's a mutual learning, and it's a good way for us to you know provide feedback, support some of our key partners around the world.
The next question comes from James Grzinic, Jefferies.
Good evening, Stefano and Giorgio. I just have two quick ones. First one, Stefano, thank you for the update on the level of penetration within the GrandVision chain in terms of frames and lenses. Could you help us put that into context, that 80% of frames being your own brand and the 70% of lenses, where do you think that could go to and on what timeframe? And secondly, appreciate your thoughts in terms of thinking about an acceleration in organic growth in Q4. Can you perhaps help us understand what the main drivers to that acceleration will be, either by channel, by geography, when you think about that more bullish Q4, please?
Hi, James, good evening. GrandVision question first. I think both can have further room to go up. I would say probably a bit more with lenses than with frames. We already, you know, 80%+ on the frame business, so I think it could go up a few percentage points, but no more than that. Probably on the lenses, we have a bit more room. So there'll still be some nice tailwinds of synergies in 2025, and that's what you're alluding to. The other question that you have is the fourth quarter. I look at where we've seen October so far, and to be honest with you, we generally see good traction across the different geographies. I think we started the quarter well in North America.
We, in particular, I would say on the Direct-to-Consumer side. I mentioned Sunglass Hut trend. I would say good optical retail banners, pretty much all of them, and a good traction in Europe, and we're very pleased with that. In China, we have an important part of our business that is represented by Stellest, and Stellest continues to grow double digits. We are very pleased. Let's never forget, let's never forget the resiliency of the vision care part of our business. It's about 75%, slightly less than that, of our total business for EssilorLuxottica, and that has proven to be the most resilient part.
If on top of that, we add the traction that we start seeing on the sun business, which we know has been soft, in particular in North America, during the first nine months of the year, and for Sunglass Hut also in 2023, I think we have all the ingredients to see an acceleration on our organic growth for the fourth quarter.
Our next question comes from Cedric Lecasble, Stifel. Our next question comes from Piral Dadhania, RBC Capital Markets.
Thank you. Good evening, Stefano and Giorgio. I just have one question, please. Please, could you give some framework or clarification as to the quantified revenue target you've provided to 2026? I think it's a target of EUR 27-28 billion. Relative to where market expectations are, that's a little bit below. So could you just help us understand how you get there and maybe what the market's missing in terms of the growth drivers? Thank you.
Good evening, Piral. The 2026 guidance had a landing point of EUR 27 billion-EUR 28 billion in revenues, which is a natural evolution of a mid-single-digit growth trajectory, a constant currency that we expect to see. That growth doesn't include few assets, for example, the development of myopia outside China. And, for example, the some other development of online banners, optical online, for example, so, and wearable, that is the other part. So there are a few ins and out in that, but the overall target that was given obviously put us in a very good position considering where we are today.
The last question comes from Anne-Laure Bismuth, HSBC.
Yes. Hi, good evening, Stefano and Giorgio. My first question is about Stellest. So are you still confident that you will get the clearance from the FDA by the end of H2 2025? My second question is about the margin evolution. Can you provide us the key moving parts for the margin evolution in H2? What could be the FX impact, and are you comfortable with the 100 basis point margin expansion expected by the consensus? Thank you very much.
Hello, Anne. Good evening. So first question on Stellest, we are confident to get the FDA clearance, and obviously, we said that we expect end of 2025, beginning of 2026 to launch this product. Remember, there are two technologies that are going underneath the FDA clearance. And remember that those technology are highly effective, and we already proved that technology in other markets. So it's we're going through this natural process, but we have confidence that we'll get the clearance, and we'll open up another important market that is the North American one.
Margin evolution, as you know, this is not really a margin call, but I would go back to the comment that I made at the beginning of the year, where we said that we were expecting, and we are expecting, for 2024 a year of the top-line growth, clearly, and the margin expansion profile, that is gonna be much stronger than what you've seen last year.
Okay, I will take the liberty to grab a few seconds to this call because we needed to celebrate an important anniversary here. Because ten years ago, at the end of October, a new Group CFO was appointed, and that was Stefano. So at that time, an amazing transformational journey for our company started, and it's been amazing, Stefano, to go through that with you in your leading position. In ten years, we met with you more than 1,500 investment firms, and it's been really an amazing journey. So we want, myself and the IR team, thank you for all of that and wish you the best for the next decade with us.
Totally unexpected, but thank you very much. And, have you all a lovely rest of the day, and look forward to talking to all of you in the next call. Thank you.