Retail - Eijsden-Margraten, Limburg, Nederland
Pearle Europe is a leading optical retail company that started in November 1996 with the acquisition of Pearle Netherlands from the US based Pearle Vision Inc. Since 1996 the Group has entered new European markets almost every year through the acquisition of strong local retail formats. Pearle Europe now operates multiple optical retail companies and formats in sixteen European countries under different retail brand names. In addition, Pearle Europe operates stores in four countries in the Middle-East through a master franchise agreement.In 2008 Pearle Europe entered into a joint venture with Reliance Retail launching a chain of optical stores in India. In December 2008 Pearle Europe acquired from HAL two optical retail chains in Brazil and one in Chile, which represent in total 221 stores. In several of the countries Pearle Europe is active in, it operates a franchise system next to its company-owned stores. At the end of 2008, approximately twenty-six percent of the 2,600 stores were franchise stores. In 2008 Pearle Europe achieved system wide sales of € 1,435 million, making it one of the leading optical retail companies in the world. At the end of 2008 the Group employed over 10,400 FTE's.