Eight decades ago, Charoen Treeponchaisak opened an optical store called Charoen Optic in Saraburi, a provincial town roughly 100 kilometres north of Bangkok. Little did he know that the humble store would become Thailand’s biggest eyewear company, with more than 2000 locations across Southeast Asia. Last week, EssilorLuxottica, the Franco-Italian giant behind Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Transitions lenses, announced that it has acquired a significant stake in Top Charoen for an undisclosed sum
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Who is Top Charoen?
Top Charoen’s journey spans three generations. Founded in 1947, the company was set apart by the mobile units the founder dispatched to rural communities and villages. The brand’s identity, from the very beginning, was built on reach.
His son, Noppasak Treeponchaisak, inherited that ethos and channelled it into modernisation. He invested in computerised vision testing at a time when few optical retailers in Thailand were doing so, and in 1991 rebranded the business as Top Charoen.
Under his leadership, the chain expanded beyond Bangkok into northern and northeastern Thailand, eventually planting its flag in nearly every major shopping centre in the country, from Central and Robinson to Lotus’s and Big C.
In 1998, the company founded the Thai Optometry School, certified by the Ministry of Education, training a new generation of professional opticians nationwide.
Decades later, it opened a flagship store in Siam Square equipped with AI-powered eye-testing technology, and in 2023 acquired its own lens manufacturing plant in Thailand. By 2024, Top Charoen had transitioned into a public company with more than 2100 stores and had begun expanding into Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia.
A quiet market hiding in plain sight
With more than 6500 employees and an in-house training centre for eye care professionals, Top Charoen currently operates under retail banners including Luxoptic, Eye Class, Big C Optical, Robinson Optical and its own e-commerce channels.
Francesco Milleri, chairman and CEO, and Paul du Saillant, deputy CEO at EssilorLuxottica, said the partnership with Top Charoen will strengthen the company’s existing presence in one of Asia’s most significant countries.
According to research firm Imarc, the Southeast Asian eyewear market reached US$6.35 billion in 2024 and is projected to nearly double to US$11 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 6.36 per cent. Thailand, with a rapidly ageing population and rising urban incomes, sits at the heart of that expansion.
The deal did not come out of nowhere. EssilorLuxottica and Top Charoen have worked closely together for years, and in many ways, the acquisition simply puts a formal stamp on what was already a tight commercial relationship. But formalising it matters.
Thailand is also the ground that EssilorLuxottica already knows well. The country serves as a strategic hub for the group’s manufacturing and regional operations, meaning this is less a leap into the unknown and more a deepening of roots already planted.
Coming off a record year
The acquisition follows a strong financial year for EssilorLuxottica. The group recently posted record revenues of 28.49 billion euros for 2025, an 11.2 per cent increase, with net income rising 7.2 per cent to 3.16 billion euros.
Growth was seen across all regions, with North America up 11.6 per cent, Europe up 11.8 per cent, and Asia-Pacific up 10.1 per cent. The group closed the year with 17,750 stores worldwide.
The company has also been investing heavily in smart eyewear. Last year, the company announced plans to increase smart glasses production capacity to 10 million units annually by the end of 2026, with expanded manufacturing in China and Southeast Asia.
Before Top Charoen, EssilorLuxottica acquired GrandVision in Europe and the LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut chains in North America.
Further reading: EssilorLuxottica acquires Supreme from VF: Attractive deal or risky move?
