Hello, everybody. This is Giorgio Iannella from the IR team. Thank you for joining EssilorLuxottica H1 2024 Results Management Call. The group's Chairman and CEO, Francesco Milleri, the Deputy CEO, Paul du Saillant, and the CFO, Stefano Grassi, will walk you through the business and financial highlights for the period. After their presentations, there will be a 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 Francesco.
Welcome, everybody. Good to see so many of you connected today for the EssilorLuxottica first semester earning call. I'm pleased to introduce our sound financial performance and give you an update on our key strategic initiatives. In the first six months of the year, we posted revenue growth in line with the long-term targets, with the two quarter well aligned in their performance and operating margin in sound progression. That leave us fully confident to deliver on our five-year targets. Stefano will elaborate on that. I'd just like to emphasize here the solidity of our growth path since 2021 on both revenue and margins, always translating into strong cash flows. While we well execute our strategy in the core business of eye care and eyewear, we play the role of a front runner in the technological revolution of the industry.
The combination of Essilor, Luxottica, and GrandVision into one single, stronger group was just the first step. Now, we are at work to make a second, much bolder move, bringing our group into the promising future of wearable and AI-based face computing. We'll bring together digital platform, portfolio of new application, ranging from eye care, hearing aid, predictive advanced diagnostic, to gaming, sport, and entertainment. In that direction, Ray-Ban Meta continue to be a great success, upgrading product quality, adding new functionalities, and accelerating growth sales. At the start of its journey, Ray-Ban Meta already sold more than Ray-Ban Stories in its entire life. We strongly believe we are just at the beginning of revolution, which will combine technology with design and branding, and deeply reshape many industry converging on our wearable, unique platform.
One of the key engines of such revolution is our long-term partnership with Meta, making our proposition in new generation of eyewear more and more powerful. Nuance Audio is part of the same vision. Over the past year, we have made significant progress in developing the new technology, fine-tuning the product, and collecting supportive clinical evidence from extensive research and top-quality tests. We continue to present the product to end users and potential customers, gathering a great deal of interest. At the launch, we will be ready with presentation tools and store-product corners to support the sales of Nuance Audio in third-party optical and audiological locations, together with our own stores. Based on the high potential of our product, we have decided to proceed with the submission with the FDA in order to ensure that our product meets the highest standard of safety and efficacy.
Being fully respectful of FDA procedure, we still target the end of the year for the launch of Nuance Audio in the U.S. market. The two acquisitions we announced last week, the leading diagnostic Med Tech platform, Heidelberg Engineering, from Germany, and the iconic Supreme brand from the U.S. Coast, are fully in line with our strategy, as they respectively bring to EssilorLuxottica strong capabilities in the ophthalmic applications and one of the most iconic brands among the youth. Starting from Heidelberg Engineering, on which Paul will elaborate further, I want to highlight that the German group, founded in 1990, is a leading innovator in eye health diagnostic, imaging, and healthcare IT solutions for ophthalmology, with a unique portfolio of patents and applications. Into EssilorLuxottica's ecosystem, including Essilor's new digital division, Heidelberg will bring opportunity in different area, like R&D, optometry, healthcare IT, big data, and AI.
As for Supreme, started in 1994 in New York City, that is really a leading iconic brand, the most authentic and desired brand for the new generations, fully direct to consumer, with an aura of exclusivity and scarcity around its product offering, often released in limited units. Such a community is loyal to the brand, thus offering EssilorLuxottica an access to an audience that is untapped by its current brand portfolio. Well beyond the strong position in apparel, we are acquiring a unique communication platform to address young consumer. Nice retail point, offering a superior in-store experience, are part of such identity. Supreme directly operates 17 well-performing stores in big city worldwide, with a strong penetration in China and the other Asian markets. In a much more fluid landscape, with different business and industry converging and mixing each other, brands will matter even more than ever.
We see brands as the necessary support for the diffusion of innovations in wearable and digital platform, the necessary cultural vehicle to push our disruptive view of the future. Last but not least, Supreme acquisition will be accretive on our margin. With that, I hand over to Paul. Thank you.
Thank you, Francesco, and good morning, good evening to you all. It's a pleasure, like always, to be here with you. Today, as you have heard, we are presenting solid first half results. We are very thankful to all our colleagues for the hard work they have put into delivering them. Before digging a little bit deeper into the acquisition of Heidelberg Engineering, I would like to emphasize three messages. First, our core activity is in strong shape. In a context that is complex, our teams are deeply focused on the execution of our strategic priorities. In the last month, we have consolidated our organization, developing our leaders, and preparing the generation of tomorrow at all levels. Our flat and agile structure is nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of our company. Second, our innovation dynamism remains unparalleled.
Just think about how rich our pipeline has been in recent time and the tangible impact it has already made to our growth. Stellest, Varilux XR, Transitions Gen S, Ray-Ban Meta, Ray-Ban Change, the new licenses, Swarovski, Jimmy Choo, Brunello Cucinelli, Ferrari, Moncler, and now Diesel. It is truly inspiring. We have talked about them already during our last call, so today I would like to just touch upon two of our iconic brands and categories, Stellest and Oakley. We have recently released our five-year clinical trial findings for Stellest at the ARVO annual meeting in Seattle. The data shows that the lenses are effective in slowing down the myopia progression and axial elongation, saving 1.75 diopters on average over five years. The confirmation of the strong results over an extended time horizon really proves how impactful our technology is.
More than 1 million children have been equipped with Stellest in the first half. A lot is going on at Oakley, and on top, they are preparing for the Olympics, starting tomorrow in Paris. The brand is buzzing with excitement for this huge sporting event, and will have a pavilion at the Palais Brongniart to host its Team Oakley athletes. Oakley will be outfitting the U.S. surfing team with a super cool collection of functional offshore apparel and eyewear. The brand has also just dropped the new special Inner Spark frame collection, drawing attention to the deep emotions that athletes go through when competing. Check it out. Third, we are preparing for the future in a bold way. With industry transforming initiatives, as you have heard from Francesco, and a clear focus on sustainability, where we are advancing well on our agenda with concrete actions.
We have just announced that by 2025, we will create a 25-hectare solar farm close to our Italian Barberini manufacturing site, able to produce approximately 30,000 MWh of renewable energy per year, the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of approximately 10,000 families. We have recently submitted our near-term emission reduction targets to the SBTi for approval. Our initiatives so far have led to an improvement in major sustainability rankings, such as MSCI, ESG, Sustainalytics, and Moody's. Now, I would like to focus on Heidelberg Engineering. This is clearly a leap forward in stepping up the capabilities of EssilorLuxottica in the med tech space through building a complete spectrum of eye care solutions, from routine exam to advanced diagnostics, combined with AI capabilities.
With Heidelberg Engineering and their teams, we are bringing great expertise, cutting-edge technology, and a globally renowned brand into the EssilorLuxottica family. Their advanced solution in the field of diagnostic imaging, digital surgical microscopes, and healthcare IT solutions empower ophthalmologists to detect, diagnose, and monitor eye disease at an early stage. Their SPECTRALIS device is widely recognized as the gold standard in ophthalmic imaging, and has also been chosen by the NASA to monitor the vision of astronauts aboard the ISS. Heidelberg Engineering is known for its powerful R&D capabilities and contribution to sight-saving scientific research. They are also actively integrating small and innovative companies to foster the development of new projects, values that are very much aligned with the one of our company. With this move, we enter the space of clinical ophthalmology, which will allow us to upgrade our offering and expand our scientific programs.
Now I will hand it over to Stefano, who will run you through the financial performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Paul, and welcome to our first half earnings release. As usual, we start our journey on the financial, commenting first our revenue results, and then I'll move to the P&L and the free cash flow generation. During the course of a second quarter, EssilorLuxottica deliver a top line up 5.2% at constant currency, a cruise speed that is very much in line with our long-term guidance. Despite the environment, we are surrounded is uncertain, in particular in our main market, the U.S. one. When we look at our growth at current exchange rate, our top line was up 3.8%, so the gap between, constant and current exchange result is narrowing during the course of a second quarter, and I would say it's mainly driven by some minor currencies.
Both professional solution and direct-to-consumer deliver a mid-single-digit quarter, posting a solid growth pretty much in every region. That's always a pretty important priority for us, making sure that our delivery is pretty balanced across the geographies and within each geography across the two distribution channel. But now, as usual, let me walk through the first geography pie, and that is North America, that posted, during the course of the second quarter, a top line up 1.4%. I would say both division, professional solution and direct to consumer, deliver a low single-digit quarter. In the B2B division, we experienced a deceleration in dependent channel with a pretty polarized picture. On one side, we had our ECP, that are not part of our strategic partnerships. They were negative in the second quarter.
In a market that was still very competitive, still very price sensitive, especially on the lower price points, while our strategic alliances, and I would probably mention here, Vision Source, grew on a high single-digit territory. If we look at the other channel now, the key accounts were in the positive territory during the course of Q2. Our e-commerce partner, our department stores, they both performed well with a double-digit delivery. Moving to price mix. Well, price mix during Q2 was the primary driver of our growth on the lens business, especially thanks to Varilux, Eyezen, and Shamir. While for the frame side, we saw a more balanced growth between volume and price mix, with double-digit in Ray-Ban Meta, that very much supported the growth of Ray-Ban brand.
On the licensing side, I would probably mention a good start for the first half of the year of our Swarovski license in North America. But now let's give a quick touch on direct to consumer. Our optical retail banner deliver another solid quarter. LensCrafters, Target Optical, they were in low single digit comps, while Pearle Vision delivered a mid-single digit comp during the course of the second quarter, proving, once again, the resilience of our optical retail business in North America. I will make a last touch now on retail, retail sun, that deliver a low single digit negative comps. Here, let me say we have no indication of a materially different trend between what we've seen in Q2 and the previous quarters.
If I look at my glass half full for a second, I can tell you that the sunglass locations, the one that were more exposed to touristic traffic, actually performed well with comps on the positive territory during the course of Q2. But now let's switch gear. Let's move to EMEA. EMEA that deliver an outstanding quarter, I would say another outstanding quarter. 7.9% top line growth in the second quarter, the thirteenth consecutive quarter of top line growth in the EMEA region. Really, for the EMEA, there are three areas on which I would focus. First of all, our B2B business, that continues to be strong quarter after quarter in both lenses and frames.
In all the main geographies, we saw solid growth in France, in Italy, in Spain, in the U.K., in Turkey, in Eastern Europe, in South Africa, and Middle East. And I'm sorry for a long number of countries, but just to give you an idea of how strong was our delivery in the region. Lenses business were positive, thanks to our branded lens portfolio with Varilux, with Stellest, with Eyezen, they all perform a double-digit pace, and on the frame side, we deliver a double-digit growth on the Oakley brand, that now, with the upcoming Olympics game in Paris, will get more and more visibility, thanks to our athletes that are gonna compete every day to win the gold medal.
The second important pillar is our optical retail business, that deliver a double-digit growth with high speed in synergy realization in both lenses and frames assortment, with a deeper penetration of the subscription model that is now running in 18 countries in Europe, and represents a third of the growth of optical retail in the region. With the teleoptometry, that is also now available in over 350 store, and with a celebration of two successful flagship stores, like the Champs-Élysées one on Grand Optical, that some of you visited at the end of May, and the other one in Oxford Street for Vision Express, that had a lot of visibility in the news. The third important pillar is our sun retail business.
Here, we suffer lack of good weather in Europe, and I would say that that was particularly true in the peak month like June, where we would normally generate 40% of the revenue of the quarter. Anyway, our sales during the course of the second quarter was just a touch below mid-single digit, with positive delivery in Italy and Spain. In my view, this performance proves once again the strengths of our Sunglass Hut business model outside the U.S. Now, the third region, moving to east, is Asia Pacific. A strong quarter, the best performing growth in the three of the four regions, and 9.8% at constant currency. This delivery comes on top of the best quarter for Asia Pacific in 2023, where I remind you, our top line grew 24% at constant currency.
In the region, Mainland China and Japan deliver a double-digit growth. All the other key countries were on the positive territory. Stellest, I usually talk about it every time because I think it's an outstanding and impressive story of growth, grew in excess of 80%, but also Varilux and Eyezen started to deliver solid growth with a double-digit pace. On the frame side, I would probably mention here, again, Oakley. Oakley is gaining more visibility with the Chinese consumer. Oakley is gaining more awareness, and I think this is obviously very important, and very rewarding for us and for the brand.
If we move for a second now to the direct to consumer, I will mention mid-single digit comps in OPSM, where we are observing an improved conversion, a better price mix, while on the other side, in Hong Kong, our retail business continues to struggle as we experience soft comps throughout the quarter, and that is very much due to a lower tourist traffic in the city. Now, the last region in the pipeline is Latin America, 8.6% top line growth at constant currency. I would say in the top line, we have a material help coming from the inflationary impact of Argentina. We also need to mention that the largest country in the region, Brazil, suffered between the end of April and the month of May, the dramatic consequence of the flooding in the region called Rio do Sul.
You probably, many of you have seen the terrible picture of the situation in that region. We had about 1,800 stores that we serve as our clients on the B2B side that were impacted. We have slightly less than 100 store between corporate-owned stores and franchising stores that were impacted, and we're now every day working next to our clients, with our store, to resume their day-to-day operations. Despite that, the performance in Brazil were slightly positive, with the B2B frames that were at double-digit pace, and while on the other side, the direct to consumer, we had double-digit comp in sun as well as in Óticas Carol. So overall, a pretty compelling picture for Brazil, despite the major challenge in a specific region, the southern part of the country.
If we move now for a second to the direct to consumer in the Hispanic LatAm region, I would like, once again, a strong delivery of the formerly known GrandVision banner. In particular, the one that are in Nicaragua, in Costa Rica, in Andes, in Mexico, and in Honduras. They all posted a solid growth, and that was very much driven by price mix, thanks to a strategic realistic view of the assortment in the region for both lenses and frames that is obviously paying back. We closed out the journey across the four different region, and now let's face and introduce a new chapter. That is the profit and loss. And moving to the profit and loss, as usual, I will focus more on the constant currency results.
Our gross margin, as you can see, is 40 basis points accretive compared to 2023. That's obviously a very pleasing result for our P&L. It's very much the result of a stronger mix effect, and couple that with a price increase that we executed throughout the year, throughout the beginning of 2024, in both lenses and frames. Those tailwinds, price mix, are largely offsetting the headwinds coming from the insurance claim cost, and also the strategic investment that we are making on our manufacturing infrastructure. If we move now to the OpEx side, we're successfully balancing here the investments on the new license, the incremental spending for Transitions Gen S, while on the other side, we keep our G&A cost under severe control.
In all of this, translating a 50 basis point margin accretion at our operating profit on an adjusted basis, while our net income on an adjusted basis expanded 60 basis points at constant currency, with a double-digit growth, thanks to a slightly favorable, compared to last year, tax rate. Now, I wanna go to the last slide for the P&L, and it's a margin bridge. A margin bridge that I'm sure you are familiar with, because it's exactly the same that we show you, at the end of, 2023, early 2024, to comment last year results. As you can see here, you have the major building blocks: inflation, operational efficiency, and strategic investment. One by one, I'll give you just a few highlights to make you understand what's driving our operating profit improvements year-over-year.
As expected, the inflationary impact is still there. It's still material, and it's fairly close to what we experienced during the second part of 2023. For the vast majority, I would say, it's related to the labor cost. On the positive side, you see 280 basis points of our operating efficiency and price mix. That's very important. We already commented the results and the delivery of GrandVision synergies, the operating leverage of our business unit, and again, our price mix dynamic. All of this playing in our favor, and give us an even greater basis points accretion compared to the one that we commented last year. If you remember, in 2023, this building block was 270 basis points accretion, but with the top line, they grew 7%.
Now, our top line is more around 5%, and our accretion is actually improved compared to 2023. The last pillar before the foreign exchange is represented by the strategic investment. The strategic investment accounted for about 60 basis points, and are distributed between the product innovation of Ray-Ban, the upcoming Nuance hearing aid, the digital investment in our platforms, and last but not least, the investment in our portfolio. All of this is translating into 50 basis points margin accretion at constant currency. Clearly, a material acceleration from the 10 basis points that we commented for the full year of 2023. And now the last chapter of our journey today, it's represented by the free cash flow and the net debt. There are really two messages that I wanna convey to you.
First of all, EUR 971 million free cash flow generation, approximately EUR 20 million more than the free cash flow that we generated in 2023 in the first half, and that despite the currency headwinds. The second message is that we have a strong balance sheet. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio, it's a 1.5, and that gave us proper room to execute the two M&A transaction that were well described before by Francesco and Paul. And now, as usual, let me hand it over to the operator for the Q&A session. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now start the Q&A session. If you wanna book a question, press star followed by five. Our first question come from Chiara Battistini, JP Morgan.
Good morning. Good evening. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I have two, please. The first one, I guess, on Supreme. If we can come back, I know you touched on this, but if we can come back really on the rationale behind the acquisition, how this will fit your portfolio, and also whether we should be thinking that now maybe brands could be a potential acquisition target going forward. And simply also, if we were looking to get exposure to the brand and to the younger consumer through this brand, why not considering an IP license instead of the full acquisition of the brand? That's my first question. And then, on my second question is on the innovation, so the larger innovations that you're presenting.
Firstly, on Stellest, I was wondering if you could touch on how the expansion into Europe is progressing so far. I know it's very small, but any initial indication on Europe would be very helpful. And the second one on Nuance, if you could confirm about the Q4 launch in the U.S., and possibly where you are in terms of conversations with potential distributors, how you're thinking about the distribution of Nuance once it launches. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Chiara. I try to answer to the Supreme rationale. Really, I've been very surprised for the reaction of the market, that is really the market, they didn't understand immediately what's the purpose of this acquisition. And the purpose is really far behind the fact that they are an iconic brands that they are doing very well, that they are profitable and so on. Really, it's the strategic approach of our group that found a perfect brand that fit with our strategy, and so we had the chance to close the deal and really to plan a future together. First of all, we think Supreme as a communication platform is really a direct channel to an audience that is very difficult to reach.
This communication channel has a real great reputation that maintained for more than 30 years. Why not through license? Because license is a totally different matter. We depend on communication, on marketing, on product many time, from the, brands.
Creativity that is really giving us direction and sometimes constraint. We believe that a good balance between house brand and licensed brand is what make the company very, very healthy. So that is the rationale behind. It's not so complex. It's not a decision to enter in the apparel. Apparel for us really is something that help to communicate. It could be skateboard, it could be cycling, and in the future, could be also other brands or product that can allow the company to bring technology in a natural way to the new audience. This is, if you think, at the success of our Ray-Ban Meta, of course, the technology, especially of the second generation, is amazing.
The quality of the sound, the capability, the function, are very, very strong and good. But what allowed us really to reach the real target, it was the brand. It was the popularity of Ray-Ban, the capability to be recognized from a large population, and that is the way we would like to approach in the future, bringing through brands all our innovation to the large public and to all new audience. Then I leave Paul to comment on Stellest.
So Stellest, myopia management, as we have explained often to you, we have a very systematic approach to establish this new management of myopia by, of course, continuing the expansion into China. What is noticeable in the first half is that now we have the second technology platform, the one of SightGlass Vision, which is in the market, and starting to address hundreds of thousands of children. So it's really starting to be complementing the Stellest part. The second expansion is the geographical expansion into Europe. We are going to market with Stellest. The product is well established in France, in the U.K., and more and more in more and more countries in Europe. So that's the second really development.
All of that, we do it as we often explain, working with the doctor community, with the ophthalmologist, being very present in the big symposium, like we were at ARVO very recently. Third, we are preparing the North America, U.S., working with the FDA, with the two technologies, with the preferred status, targeting 2025 for SightGlass Vision, early 2026 for studies. That is really the roadmap, and we continue to see great acceptance for this technology by the parents, by the doctors, and of course, by the children.
About Nuance. We expect the launch at the end of the year or at the beginning of the next. And the approach will be in line with the strategy that our company always had in the past. Not disruption in the market, partnership with everybody. This is why we are really discussing with all the operators in the audiological sector, and we believe that our product it really it will improve and enlarge the market for everybody. It's really targeting 1.2 billion, and that is really big numbers, of people that really cannot find a solution or solution acceptable to fix the problem. So they cannot well use the traditional hearing aid for many reasons.
One, it could be a stigma or maybe the price, or because they don't fit for their need. So we launch a new generation of product that combine the two optical and audiological functionality. And I believe that we will be an help for the entire industry. It will be present in our store, but also in all the others audiological stores of the all the partner and players, first in U.S., then around the world. Thank you.
The next question comes from Oriana Cardani at Intesa Sanpaolo.
Good evening, and thank you for taking my two questions. The first one regards the M&A policy. So, can you quantify the contribution to revenues growth and EBIT margin impact expected for next year from the consolidation of the two acquisitions? And the second question is about GrandVision. Can you give us the organic growth in the second quarter of GrandVision? Thank you.
Good evening, Oriana.
Let me take your two questions. I mean, the long-term guidance, if you remember, when it was shared, it implied an M&A contribution over the period of 2021-2026, up to 1% of our, of our growth profile. Now, of the two acquisitions that we disclosed, Supreme figures are public, so you see revenue in excess of $500 million. The other one hasn't been disclosed, but I can tell you it's smaller in terms of materiality. And, and this is really, the thing. With respect to profitability, as Francesco said before, the EBIT margin of Supreme has been disclosed by VF when they filed the 8-K to the SEC, and you can see a very rich and healthy EBIT margin in excess of 20%.
The second question you have is with respect to GrandVision, organic growth. I think it's, it's a healthy pace of GrandVision, double-digit that you've seen during the course of the second quarter. It's healthy because it's widespread across all the different countries. It's healthy because it comes on top of another year, 2023, where we are trending very close to double digits once again. And it's healthy because it's been a, a major driver of our top line and margin expansion. So we are very pleased with the trajectory that the GrandVision team has been delivering in Europe.
Our following question comes from Louise Singlehurst, Goldman Sachs.
Hi, good evening to you all, Francesco, Paul, Stefano, and Giorgio. Thanks for taking my questions. I wondered if I could ask two related to the U.S., please. Firstly, on the U.S., and particularly the DTC backdrop, can you give us any view of, like, the performance during the period, any flavor that you might be able to share on the exit rates going into July, and particularly, like, consumer behavior, any sensitivity that you're seeing to price relative to Q1? And then secondly, for the U.S., can you give us any flavor on the margin, specifically on how you're managing the drag from, like, the low growth environment?
I'm just trying to understand if there's a tight rein on cost currently, and whether, as the growth starts to recover, whether we'll start to see a nice operational leverage coming through, or whether the cost comes back into the business. Thank you.
Good evening, good afternoon, Louise. I'll take both of your question. So with respect to the direct-to-consumer performance, as we commented in the release, we have a two-sided story, right? We have a solid growth in our optical retail banners, LensCrafters, Target Optical, Pearle Vision. We are pretty pleased with that because we see it consistently. It proves once again the resilience, as I said before, of our optical business model in North America. It's nicely coupled with a performance that we've seen also on Vision Source, on the independent side. When we look at the exit rate, I would say no major change in the month of July for optical retail banners. For the sun part of the business, it's quite a few quarters that we continue to experience, I would say, a soft demand in sun.
We haven't seen a material change in the trajectory, neither in the second quarter or in the early start of the third quarter. But again, we are just three weeks into Q3, so obviously we're gonna have to wait and see if there is any evolution. I think at a certain point in time, we will see a rebound of some demand in North America. The other question you had, Louise, was related to margin and specifically margin dynamic in North America, in an environment of low single digit growth, as you rightly pointed out. Well, I would say there are probably two dynamic. We're pretty pleased with the professional solution margin dynamic that we see there.
The growth that we have on some of the channels that we have on the B2B, it's driven by a pretty solid price mix, and that helps the profitability. While on the retail side, we probably feel a bit more the headwinds deriving from the inflationary trend, especially on labor, due to the intensity of labor into our profitability.
The next question comes from Veronika Dubajova, Citi.
Hi, good evening, Francesco, Paul, Stefano, and Giorgio. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I will also keep it to two. If I can just follow up, Stefano, on the sort of drivers of the gross margin expansion across the group. Obviously, really impressive performance, given that the U.S. was the weakest growing region. So I was hoping you could maybe elaborate on what were the big levers that you had. Was it, you know, the improvement at GrandVision? Was it just product mix across the broader business, not just specifically within the U.S.? If you can just give us a little bit of insight into what's driven that, you know, fairly impressive gross margin performance while your single, the highest gross margin region is growing the least. So that was my first question.
And then my second question is a question on the Meta partnership, and how you guys are thinking about potentially sharing the technology that you have developed with Ray-Ban Meta with other players in the tech market, versus keeping it exclusively for Meta. And sort of what would be the trade-offs that you would need to see to choose one versus the other, if you can talk through your thinking process on that. Thank you, guys, so much.
Hi, Veronik a. Good evening. Let me see, I'm glad you asked the question on gross margin, because I think it's been a while since last time you saw gross margin expanding. There are really couple of dynamics underneath that gross margin expansion for the group. You have on one side the expansion driven by price mix, and I would probably mention both as equally important in this case. It's mix, in particular on lenses, and we've seen the good performance, the good traction that we're getting on the product innovation, like Varilux XR, on the launch of Transitions Gen S, that right now is still launched on a limited number of countries. And obviously, on the other side, there is the price effect.
We've been very open to announce price increase on a single-digit territory, which is bringing obviously an additional lift in our overall price mix dynamic. On the other side, GrandV ision is an important driver of the gross margin expansion. The improvement and further penetration of spherical optical lenses within the GrandV ision assortment is progressively, at a fast pace, respecting the existing lens supply agreements, but we're clearly very pleased with that. And I would say that this margin expansion comes despite the deceleration on the negative territory of sunglass stock in North America, which, as you all know, it's a business that is highly profitable. And clearly, when you see that deceleration, we've been able to largely offset that, expanding our margin.
I'll try to comment a little bit on Ray-Ban Meta and potential partnership with other competitors. First, our relationship with Meta is really strong. We invested a lot together in term of professional capability, plant, CapEx, and we spend a lot of time together, really, to design the strategy for the future, starting from the strong relationship with Mark Zuckerberg and the top managers of Meta. So for us, this is something so relevant and important that has been preserved, and we want preserve for a long- term. And if you read the story of our partnership, also with the license, you see that they last more than 10-20 years.
Really, when we find the right approach, we try to remain consistent for a long- term. The product that with they are coming out are very good. They are. We see the continuous improving on the functionality and the quality. So, we believe that partnership with Meta it will last for a very long- term. At the same time, we have conversation that doesn't mean partnership with the competitors, because with most of them, we have a commercial agreement. We are customers with all the others players. We don't want comment for the future.
No one can really understand what will happen in five, 10 years, but so far, we are very happy with the partnership with Meta, and we would like to really concentrate our capability and our investment on that kind of relationship.
The next question comes from Domenico Ghilotti, Equita.
Good afternoon. Couple of questions. The first is a follow-up on the gross margin improvement. I would like to understand where are we in the progress, because you were mentioning some drivers from a GV integration to the price hikes that will not stop, say, in the first semester. So I'm trying to understand where are you in the progression on these drivers. And the second is on the strategic investments that you were mentioning as a headwind on profitability. Could you give us a sense of what should we expect? So if we should expect a pickup on this impact, or if something that will remain stable for the long-t erm because you have so many new projects. Thank you.
[Foreign language] Domenico. So I'll take both of your questions here. Gross margin, let's not forget that when we shared the long-term outlook, 2021-2026, we said that we have an expectation of gross margin broadly flat over time. So I think we've seen semesters in which our gross margin was slightly diluted, and now we're seeing gross margin moving on the positive side. But again, I'm not materially different from where I was when we shared the original guidance. Clearly, now we're benefiting from the price and mix effect combined. We are getting the benefits of GrandV ision. I would say the impact of those will not be annualized yet for second semester. So you can realistically think that this might continue also during the second half of this year.
Well, so the second question related to strategic investment. Well, the dynamic, it's moving in what we probably discussed quite a few times in the past, right? For 2024, we were expecting the inflationary headwinds to fade out, and we're seeing it. Second, first half of this year, inflationary headwinds are pre-aligned with the second half of last year. While we would expect a pick up on strategic investments, they might go slightly up during the second half of the year. We have quite a few strategic important initiatives. Obviously, the most evident one will be the launch of Nuance at the end of the year as commanded by Francesco.
Overall, I think the trajectory that we're getting of a stronger margin expansion, that, remember, we share at the beginning of the year, is still our commitment for 2024.
The next question come from Grace Smalley, Morgan Stanley.
Hi, good evening, and thank you for taking my questions. My first one would just be, I've seen that you've reiterated the 2026 targets. Just given all the significant revenue opportunities that you have outlined, across different pillars, like, how do you think about the importance of the components of those targets? I.e., like, is there a scenario where you would be willing to sacrifice margins for higher growth as you invest behind those growth opportunities that you've outlined? Or how do you think about balancing the top line growth opportunity and the margins, and whether the mix of those targets could change over time?
Then my second question would just be, following the price increases that you have implemented during the quarter, could you just update us on what you've seen in terms of customer reaction to those price increases, given we are hearing some signs of a price-sensitive consumer in some places? Thank you very much.
Good evening, Grace. So let me take both of your questions. Target 2026, we're fully committed for our 2026 target here. Then clearly, you know, few things changed since the time we shared those long-term growth targets. Here, I don't think it's a matter of sacrificing margin for growth or the other way around. I think if you look at the trajectory of EssilorLuxottica, we are looking at, I think, eight consecutive semesters of margin expansion at constant currency, and during those semesters, we've always been growing. So we, for us, it's not a matter of sacrifice one for the other, and I think we're fairly committed and dedicated to get where we need to be. Then clearly, we have two important assets that are coming together.
One, the two acquisition that were disclosed before by Francesco and Paul, and those will close very likely at the end of this year. Secondly, the launch of Nuance, the hearing aids. Those are important assets for us, which we believe will generate important revenue and profitability streams for the future. So we'll obviously take a closer look, crystallize our view for both those two important areas, and eventually, if, and I want to underline, if there is a need to revise our targets, we will eventually come back with you at the end of next year, at the beginning of next year. You have a second question on the, on the price increase. I think the price hasn't been material increase from us for a long- time.
We decided to take an approach that was very much driving mix through the innovation, conscious of the challenges that some of our clients were going due to inflationary headwinds, that they had to live every day on labor, on other material increase. We purposely decide to keep our pricing profile very low in in many different product category. This year, for the first time, we took those price adjustments, which again, I remind you all, are in the single digit territory. I think customer well understood the the strategy and the decision to take those price adjustments throughout their product category.
The next question come from Luca Solca, Bernstein.
Yes, good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. Capitalizing and leveraging on what Francesco just said, and the partnership with Meta being a partnership for the long- term, I guess that we need to discount what was reported by some media outlets that Google could be interested in a similar partnership. You had a partnership with Google in the past, clearly, when you entered the smart glasses initially. But I take that either you work with Meta or you work with Google, but please correct me if I'm wrong. And then maybe, as a follow-up to that, there were also media reports about Meta being interested in taking a stake at EssilorLuxottica.
I wonder if you could say anything about that and how this could potentially work?
Good evening, Luca. On the Meta partnership, we really, we are convinced that this is the right one. We are very consistent, and we saw good result, improving, increasing sales, so we don't see any reason why we have to change. At the same time, we are very proud that we see that interest coming from Google, but also from other big tech for our company to start partnership or to understand if we can share our capability. Not only, I would like underline, not only because we are very good to design beautiful eyewear, I'm afraid, but also because really we show that we can really bring into the market the innovation in the right way.
So we are here, we listen to everybody, but I repeat, partnership, we are so happy with the partnership with Meta, that so far is our main target and commitment. About Meta taking a stake in EssilorLuxottica. We are informed of this kind of intention. We welcome everybody, any investors in our company. Also, in this case, we are proud that the company that know us very well now, after years of partnership, is convinced that our company, our group, can grow and make much better in the future, and is also the way that the partnership can be reinforced. We don't see any risk about that. Taking a stake in a company like us, it doesn't affect any kind of relationship.
Relationship are based on common interest, common view, and, really, they must have a solid economic behind to, to function. So I believe that, if they will go ahead, with that, it will work, it will help, but it's not really necessary to our partnership that is strong behind that. Thank you.
The next question comes from James Grzinic, Jefferies. James Grzinic, Jefferies, please.
Apologies about that. I was on mute. I'm here now. Two quick ones, please. The first one, Francesco, just to follow up on what you just said, would it mean that this is not about you issuing primary shares, new shares to Meta? First question is that one. And second question on Nuance, can you perhaps help us understand the scale of the ambition at launch, and how many doors do you see involved in the coming months, and perhaps the split between wholesale and retail doors? That would be really helpful. Thank you.
Sorry. Hi, James. We have not planned to capital increase dedicated to Meta, so if Meta would like to become our shareholder, it will buy on the market. That is our position at this moment. About Nuance, scale and ambition. We will be, we will go quite big, especially in U.S., because all the tests that we performed with customers really had a so wonderful result, and also the presentation that we had in the U.S., in the many exhibition, it was so good. So we would like really to start in the right way with a presence in almost all the countries in U.S.
The split between retail and wholesale, I, I would say our balance usually is, 50/50, but in this case, I, I believe that wholesale can really be, bigger than our, direct selling. Then we have also to understand the impact, of the e-com on, on that, product, since you know that it will be an, OTC, device. So a quite good ambition at the launch, and, doors, we, we cannot, really now, have the, the defined idea, but, in term of 1,000 stores, at the launch, if not at the launch, at least in the first semester of the next year.
Our last question come from Cedric Lecasble, Stifel.
Yes, thank you, Cedric Lecasble, Stifel. I have two follow-ups. Well, one, which is more projection, given all your strategic initiatives. If, if we, if we think five years from now, what would be, in your view, the largest or most promising area between Ray-Ban Meta, Stellest, Nuance, between the three, what, what idea of a ranking in terms of, sales and profit potential should we, should we have today, if you have an idea? And you must have one. The last question is on Heidelberg. How will you integrate this company? Where will it be placed? What, what are the teams that will work on this, project? Is this R&D? Is this some operational teams? Could you maybe elaborate a tiny bit on this new business? Thank you.
Hi, Cedric. Strategic initiative and what will be most important. Fortunately, we don't have to really choose one. All three belong to us. We are really betting big on Stellest for certain reason, because it's the first treatment. It's the first time that we moved to correction, to treatment of a pathology. And for us, is so important and is growing so well, that we believe it will become a great asset. Nuance is a totally new approach of the market. So now we have a very big expectation that can be very relevant in our revenues and balance sheet, but it's too early really to define how big it will be. Meta, the trajectory is already clear.
We sold at the launch of the new product almost the same amount of pieces that we sold in the previous two years with the first release. So the trajectory is very, very clear. It will increase, and I believe in five years, it's difficult to say, but wearable as a category, it will represent really one of the biggest part of our revenues, and the most profitable. Now, leave Paul.
So great, Cedric, that you ask a question on Heidelberg Engineering, because it is, as you have seen, a very strategic move, totally coherent with the MedTech orientation of the company. I want to identify a very simple idea. It's complementary to some of the capability that we have in EssilorLuxottica, in the instrument part already. So first, the great news is that it is a complement of the offering for the diagnostic part. Second, it's not an immediate idea that you find a company with a great reputation, with a great brand, that is established in this field, with great scientific depth and expertise. That has been a long-term company with a family behind it, people very dedicated to this technology.
So we were extremely fortunate that we could open the discussion and come up with the idea that we would take 80% of ownership in the company. And it's quite important that it means that there is 20% remaining with the founders to combine the transition of Heidelberg Engineering into building together this full platform of instrument, diagnostic software solutions, leveraging AI. So to your question, we are going to first really discover ourselves better and better. We are going to certainly deepen into the R&D capability, into building together the full integrated offer for doctors, for ophthalmologists, and combine this vision care ambition that we have for the company to go deeper toward clinics, hospital, doctors, ophthalmologists. And it's very, very coherent and complementary to what we have already in the house.
It will be a progressive integration and finding the right synergies, but we are really, really pleased that we could announce this this acquisition at the same time.
Thank you for your attention as usual, and I wish you that you can have a good holiday vacation and some break, and we see you in the next quarter. Thank you very much. Bye.