EssilorLuxottica Société anonyme (EL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everybody. Welcome for the EssilorLuxottica General Assembly. And thank you for being here. Before I start, I would like to pay tribute to Mr. Leonardo Del Vecchio, who actually built the group, and we are celebrating today, a record year, a record 2022 year with fabulous perspectives for the coming years. Leonardo was not only the Chairman of EssilorLuxottica, and the CEO. He was also a friend for many of us. He was a genius entrepreneur, an exceptional man, an exceptional leader on many accounts. A true visionary CEO, who left his imprint on the field of eye care, and he created a fantastic industrial structure. He was inspired by the leadership, the mind and the human values of our CEO will continue to carry his vision for the future. I'd like to give the floor now to Mr. Alexander Lunshof, who is the Secretary of the Assembly, and he's going to go through the technical and legal formalities.

Thank you, Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, hello, everybody. I'd like to draw your attention to the public character of this General Assembly and different journalists are present in the room. You are not allowed to tape or broadcast images of this meeting without prior permission of the society. The meeting will be webcast on the company's website from tomorrow as of 6:30 p.m. Paris time. Before proceeding with the introductions of all the speakers, I would like to proceed with the bureau of the meeting composition Mr. Francesco Milleri will chair the bureau as Chairman of Directors. I call upon the 2 shareholders present here who have the greatest number of votes and who have agreed to perform these functions and they will act as tellers. I'm referring to Mr. Secretary, sir, Mr. Romolo Bardin representing the reference shareholder of Delfin, and Mrs. Virginie Mercier Pitre representing Valoptec Association, they will be scrutinizing the meeting. I thank them for accepting -- agreeing to play this role, and I thank Mr. Francesco Milleri and the scrutineers for having appointed me as Secretary for this meeting. The statutory auditors of our company are here. In particular, I'm referring to Mr. Guillaume Devaux from Mazars company who will present the reports on the resolutions submitted for your approval. The provisional quorum is 82.09%, the general meeting, comprising more than 25% of the shares with voting rights is duly constituted and therefore, can deliberate validly on both the ordinary and extraordinary agendas. The final quorum will be announced to you before we vote on the resolutions. The bureau of the meeting will have at their disposal the newspapers, and they will make them available for you with the notice of meeting and the prior notice of the meeting provided for by law and both have been published as well as document provided. All prior documents have been made available at the company's registered office and on the website in accordance with legal and statutory regulations. The shareholders had the opportunity to vote by Internet prior to the general assembly on the dedicated secure website, which opened on April 28, and closed yesterday at 3:00 p.m. Paris time, in accordance with the regulations in force. The assembly will be organized in the form of a series of presentations, including those of Francesco Milleri, Chairman and CEO; and Paul du Saillant, Deputy CEO; followed by Stefano Grassi, regarding the 2022 annual results. And Norbert Gorny and Federico Buffa, they will both give you an overview of EssilorLuxottica footprint and R&D project. Then Chrystel Barranger will explain how the group is driving the market. Well, Elena Dimichino and Anurag Hans will present EssilorLuxottica sustainable strategy and machine. Finally, I will give the floor to Andrea Zappia, Chairman of the Nominations and Remuneration Committee, and Guillaume Devaux, Statutory Auditor. This will be followed by a Q&A session and then the vote on the draft resolutions. 14 resolutions, ordinary resolutions. Resolutions 1 to 3 concerns the approval of the company and consolidated financial statements and the allocation of set result. Resolution 4 concerns the ratification of the cooptation for Mr. Mario Notari as Director and Board member to replace Mr. Leonardo Del Vecchio, who sadly died on June 27, 2022. Resolution 5 is about the regulated agreements and the commitments submitted for your approval in accordance with the regulation. Resolutions 6 to 9 concern the approval of the remuneration elements paid during the year 2022 or allocated to corporate offices in the respect of their office in 2022, say-on-pay or ex post vote. The purpose of Resolutions 10 to 12 is to approve the 2023 remuneration policy for corporate officers, say-on-pay or ex anti-vote. Resolutions 6 to 12 were specifically examined and adopted on proposal from the Appointments and Remuneration Committee. Mr. Andrea Zappia, will report to you on the report of this committee on the retribution elements. The purpose of Resolution 13 is to renew the authorization, which allows the company to buy back its own shares. We also have 5 extraordinary resolutions. Resolution 14 is about the authorization to be given to the Board of Directors to reduce the share capital by canceling self-held treasury shares. The purpose of Resolution 15 is to renew the delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors for the purpose of increasing the share capital by incorporating all or part of the reserves: profits, share premiums, merger or contribution premiums. The purpose of Resolution 16 is to renew the delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors with the aim of issuing shares and securities involving a capital increase with preferential subscription rights being helped. Resolution 17 is new. It concerns the delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to issue securities, giving immediate or future access to the share capital through a public offering as referred to in the first amendment of Article L.411-2 of the French Monetary and Financial Code without preferential subscription rights. The purpose of Resolution 18 is to renew the delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors with the aim of deciding to increase the share capital by issuing shares reserved for members of a company savings plan. And it involves canceling preferential subscription right. The last resolution, i.e., #19 concerns the power to carry out legal formalities for decisions taken by the general team. Now I'd like to give the floor to Francesco Milleri, CEO of EssilorLuxottica.

I take just a few minutes to comment the result of this last 5 years. First, I try to take you through the time that we passed. Really, I feel like it was today, when 5 years ago, Leonardo Del Vecchio and Hubert Sagnières signed the merge, and that anything's changed from that time, just 5 years ago. And then you can remember, we went through a strange period, it was called equal power. Investors, shareholders were quite scared about this new governance with no one leading really the company. Now I have to tell you that I thank so much that equal power period. It was the key part of our successful merge. It was the time that we really merge the culture. It was the time in which we had time to work together. We talked a lot at the board level, but we work so hard in the field. And when the 3 years of equal power expired, no one cared. The company went on again, keep going, reaching results and nothing really changed, except that direction and the leadership it was set. Result, you can see what we have done, and we have done and reported these numbers not in an easy time. We had the pandemia. At the end of the pandemia, started a war that is already affecting the world and also our company in a certain way. Despite that, in 5 years, we double -- almost doubled the value of the company. I believe this is good for shareholders, but also this is very good for the and for the employees. We are stronger than before. And you remember that we merged not 2 weak companies. We merged 2 leaders at the highest value, and we succeed quite to double in 5 years really. We also increased more than 50% of the revenues. And that is good because it's not just we increase our revenue, we increased the value of the entire industry. We are proud that the optical industry is really growing because of us. And then we maintain profitability. I believe that a third profit is a base for a good growth. And our profitability is growing, is giving the strength not just to give back to our shareholders good dividend as we have done but also to gift and reward our people. We gave back to our people in the last 5 years something close to EUR 3 billion on top of remuneration in share plan, bonus and other rewards, welfare at the top. That means to be in my mind, in the mind of our Chairman, Leonardo del Vecchio to be a third company that sometimes is most important than to be a growing company. Then we created a lot of new jobs. We are very proud of that. Jobs in France, jobs in Italy, all around the world. We are growing. We are also a young company with young people also at the top management. Last not the least, we have a huge employee shareholder base. And we are trying to increase. We want our employees that trust the company, leave their money in the company, and we take the responsibility to deliver the best also for them. Say that, I believe that numbers are self-explained. Number, we believe are good. We are stronger than before and we are keep going really in the -- with the same value, with the same heritage that Leonardo left to us. Thank you very much. I pass the stage to Paul du Saillant, my Deputy CEO and a good friend.

Thank you very much, Francesco. Dear shareholders, it's always a great pleasure for me to be with you and to share with you some of the highlights of what we go through and what's going on in your company. You've seen the change of scale that's incredible that Francesco talked about. The transformation of this group as a young company, EssilorLuxottica. And what I'd like to do is spend a few minutes, give you a bit more detailed information about the strategy that's guiding our actions, the assets that we have in your company, a few words about the achievements that illustrate what we're trying to do, and it is very important in the group and, of course, the human scale as well. First of all, we're guided by a very clear strategy, which we can simply express. The idea to develop the market on the basis on an integrated omnichannel marketing business model. And each word is carefully selected. It is perfectly in line with what Mr. del Vecchio used to do, our late Chairman, and by Essilor and which is taking us forward. It's going from this founding idea that is absolutely key and that is directing the group's actions. If we take this strategy, it's important to know on what it relies, what are the assets of the company in use. There are, in fact, 6 different aspects and a combination of the assets that we've done. Firstly, we have a platform of innovation that is very comprehensive, which Norbert Gorny and Federico will talk about in more detail that adds to all the categories of our products and brands with an awful lot of innovation, I'll give you a few examples. Secondly, we have a portfolio of brands that is unrivaled in our sector. Frames, sunglasses, retail, lenses, instruments, Internet brands, we have a portfolio of brands that take on thousands of years. I'll give you a figure that actually is a bit interesting. If you take all the brands together, there is 6,000 years of history that we have. The third factor to understand what's going on in EssilorLuxottica , what's going on in our markets and then our products, is being done in an omnichannel method with our own brands, and Chrystel Barranger will talk about this. 18,000 stores and Internet platforms and the service of nearly 300,000 independent customers in -- on this market. The fourth angle is our geographic presence. And after the integration of GrandVision, that is now including in mature markets, which is still developing as well in emerging ones. So in a very balanced way, we are present in 150 countries in various channels to market a supply chain that is integrated, that is very resilient as it has been shown in recent years. It's been very complex for our teams, but it's for manufacturing that distributes worldwide through over 600 sites, all of these products with our know-how. It's very dynamic. It's a major approach and know-how in our company. And finally, 100,000, 180,000, nearly 190,000 colleagues who have all the skills needed in this sector, including what Francesco mentioned, it's a young population. Half of our colleagues are under the age of 35, 60% are women, 40% of our employees are shareholders. So there is a strength in use if everything we're talking about that is very, very significant. So a few examples of our achievements. Stefano will give you the figures later on. The 1 or 2 angles I can offer you. Firstly, we set up with Francesco, a unified organization that has been in place for now nearly 18 months and is really substantiating our operation as a single organization, as a single company. It was very complex, as Francesco mentioned, to say how we could go from 2 companies, very strong companies, very successful ones, and a third one, GrandVision, into a single approach. The other angle that's everything going around the products, we're in a phase, we're in the core of our own brands, Ray-Ban and others you've seen and the others were outlined or our other licensed brands, Chanel, Prada, all these other things. We're in a very dynamic phase of new collections, new products that we are launching at a very regular pace. In terms of innovation, you'll hear about 2 later on that show that, in fact, the group is very dynamic. There's new Varilux Lenses. It's called Varilux XR. It happens every 4 or 5 years. It's going to be a game chamber. And in the core of the Ray-Ban thing that I won't actually do, I'll let the Chairman do this, which will really disrupt the market and show how modern this brand is and is continuing to invent. In terms of the categories, something that we like to look at. We are a group that creates categories. What does that mean actually? It means, for example, a whole new platform to address child myopia, infant myopia. This is just like a salon that looked at presbyopia or longsightedness, they we're looking at myopia now. And in fact, we're creating a whole new category and I'm going to use a thing. It's what we call Smart Eyewear wearable stuff. In other words, spectacles of glasses that have electronics on board such as the Ray-Ban Stories. That was the first product. So there we're creating categories. Therefore, these are drivers that are moving us forward in terms of partnerships and licenses. You've seen or not, we've reported for 2022 that we've renewed major licenses with Giorgio Armani, for example, over a long term, 15 years, and Ferrari as well and new licenses as well that we'll be implementing with Brunello Cucinelli and Swarovski and partnerships or other capsules that have been recently announced with Roger Federer. So a lot of activity to support all this growth. This is an industrial investment that is significant. You've seen the figures. Stefano will remind you of these or outline them. We will finalize the construction of 2 -- 4 major sites, 2 in Mexican, 1 in Thailand and 1 South of Paris, where we will be launching at the start of next year, a laboratory of excellence with the latest technology. You can see from all this activity, and I can say that in conclusion, we're in a major phase of investment in IT, in digital solutions, where the group is creating a platform that is integrated for services for many or multiple digital solutions as a lot of our markets are changing into digital, and we really want your group to be part of that. To conclude, 2 insights on sustainability that will be covered by Elena and Anurag, where the social aspects of EssilorLuxottica are built around 5 pillars of Eyes on the Planet, a program that is being taking very concrete shape and the whole human labor aspects where we are bringing out the new culture based on very deep roots of Essilor and Luxottica and GrandVision that will shape the way that we implement our values, the group's culture is implemented in the years to come. Supported, as I said, by a human dimension that is important. That makes me very confident about what we're going to do with them, so very fine values with some strong ambitions implemented by leadership team with Francesco and myself of very high quality. We're very lucky there. And we've got that front line, and behind that front line, we've got teams that are competent, aligned, agile, resilient as have been shown in recent years that work hard and lie at the core the results -- the high-quality results we're presenting to you today. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Francesco. Thank you, Paul. I'm now going to hand over to Stefano Grassi, who will talk in English and will present the annual results for the group in 2022.

I'm delighted to be with you and the group today. And I'd like to thank you for attending, and really commend our 2022 results that for EssilorLuxottica have been outstanding. When we look at our financial highlights, there are really -- for 2022, there are really 3 areas that I would highlight. Sales growth, profitability and free cash flow generation. From a sales growth perspective, our top line during the course of 2022 grew 13.9% compared to the 2021 pro forma date. With total amount record high, EUR 24.5 billion in revenue. From a profitability standpoint, our overall adjusted operating profit for the full year 2022 at 16.8% as a percentage of revenue, with an improvement of 0.7%, 70 basis points compared to the pro forma 2021. The third important KPI, as I mentioned, is free cash flow generation. For the full year 2022, EssilorLuxottica delivered EUR 2.3 billion in free cash flow generation. But I think it's even more remarkable is the way we generated that free cash flow. In 2022, we're actually increasing exponentially, I would say, our overall investment. The total capital expenditure for the group in 2022 were EUR 1.6 billion on a full year basis. That represents 50% increase compared to the capital spending that we had in 2021. The areas in which we directed our investment with the one mentioned before by Francesco and Paul, strengthening our supply chain and manufacturing infrastructure, developing to the next level, our digital and IT application. And furthermore, continuing to renovate and enhance our retail footprint around the world. With all those results, we are proposing today a dividend per share of EUR 3.23, which represents a 29% increase over the 2021 lens. Later on in the presentation, we'll quickly touch on our results on 2023. We are now in May, and clearly, already 5 months into the year, and we just want to give you a little update on how we started the year. You can see here the highlights. 9.7% was our growth during the course of the first quarter 2023 compared to Q1 2022. So we had a very good start to the year so far. Let me go now into 2022, starting our journey from a revenue point of view, beginning with our revenues across the different regions and then looking at a little bit closer of revenue between the 2 operating segments, Professional Solutions B2B and Direct to Consumer. Here are our 4 different geographies. And what you see at the bottom of the slide is our overall revenue for full year 2022 and 2021 on a pro forma basis. The percentage that you see on the following 2 columns represent our growth at constant exchange rate. And on the right-hand side, our growth at current exchange rates. The 13.9% that you see on the bottom line is the number that I commented before. But if we look at our numbers, our results, constant currency, our overall growth for the full year 2022 was 7.5%. Well that's 6.5 percentage of difference that we have between constant and current exchange results are very much due to the currency fluctuation, in particular, to U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar represents about 44% of our revenue base, revaluated approximately 12% against euro during the course of [ 2022 ]. That revaluation natural creates some tailwinds in our results as you move from constant to current exchange results. Now I will comment a little bit the 4 different regions, looking at our results at constant currency. And I would usually start with North America, the largest region that posted a 4% at constant currency growth for the full year 2022. I want to remind you that in 2021, North America grew 13% compared to the pre-pandemic level of 2019. So we're growing 4% on top of very high growth that we achieved in 2021 in North America. From a Professional Solutions standpoint, those are 2 categories, frames and lenses posted solid growth during the course of last year. On the lens side of the business, very pleased with the price mix that we see, especially on the branded lens portfolio. While when we look at our frame business, the growth was very much driven by our luxury portfolio. On the Direct to Consumer side, we had a very tough comparison base in 2021. Direct to Consumer grew at a double-digit pace. And in 2022, our comparable sales on optical retail banner was flat, and our sun and sport retail banner comps were in the low single digit. Let's now move to the second region, remarkable number, 11% in EMEA region. With all the uncertainties that we had been experiencing, unfortunately, due to the conflict in Ukraine, which clearly created a lot of question around the consumer spending ability in the course of 2022, especially. But despite that, the team in EMEA delivered an outstanding result with our Professional Solutions on a high single-digit territory, with our Direct to Consumer on a double digit. From a Professional Solutions standpoint, U.K., Spain, Turkey, they all delivered double-digit growth. The strengths of our branded lens portfolio allow us to grow very much in that product category. From a frame standpoint, sun was very much the key driver of our growth in the course of 2022, very much driven by luxury and Ray-Ban. On the Direct to Consumer side, I will probably mention 2 things. First of all, it's the first year in which we consolidated the GrandVision banner into our results. More of the 4,500 retail footprint that we have in EMEA, thanks to GrandVision, performed at the high single-digit comps. And on the other side, our Sunglass Hut business in EMEA delivered a growth close to 80%, 8-0, meaning that some part of the business is strongly coming back in EMEA but also in other parts over the course of 2022. The third region is Asia-Pacific. Asia-Pacific delivered 7% growth rate through the course of 2022, with Japan double-digit, with India double-digit, with Southeast Asia double-digit. There was one country that actually decelerated during the course of 2022, and that is China. The reason, it's pretty evident. You will remember the severe restrictions that impacted due to the COVID in Greater China during the course of 2022. But in that challenging environment, in China, we were able to grow the myopia solutions category that last year exceeded 10% of our revenue in China, a category 2 years ago didn't even exist. The size of our Stellest lenses, the most important myopia management solution we have, launched and developed in China, has doubled during the course of 2022. So overall, a pretty remarkable result, I would say, in China and overall in the region. The last region is Latin America. 13% top line growth. It comes on top of the 10% that we did in '21 versus 2019. So best-performing region, most of our key countries in the area were on the double-digit pace, Mexico, Argentina and most of the Hispanic platoon countries were in a double-digit pace. So very happy with the performance, helped by the GrandVision banner in the region that did a double-digit growth during the course of 2022. But now let's look at exactly the same net sales results, but with a different angle dividing our performance between the 2 operating segments, Professional Solutions and Direct to Consumer. Professional Solutions delivered a constant currency 6.3% on a mid-single-digit territory. With the top line that was very strong in Latin America, a double-digit pace. In EMEA and Asia Pacific that deliver high single digits. We had pretty much price mix driving the growth on the lens business. While on the frame side of Professional Solutions, the growth was more balanced between volume and price mix. If we look at our Direct to Consumer segment, growth, close to 9%, with the some part of the business that was very much fundamental and instrumental together with GrandVision to grow the growth in our Direct to Consumer segment. But now this is the picture for our top line. Let me switch over to profitability, and let's take a closer look to our profit and loss for the full year 2022. What you have in here is our picture for '22 compared to the 2021 pro forma. And when I say pro forma, these the results includes GrandVision for 12 months for the full year 2021. You know that we acquired GrandVision on July 1, '21. In order to make numbers comparable, we are putting 2021 on a pro forma basis. What you have as usual on the right-hand side is the growth of our revenue and profitability at constant and current exchange results. I won't spend any time on revenues but it's important to highlight that in 2022, we had a story of margin improvement, margin accretion in gross profit, in operating profit, in net profit. If we look at our gross profit, our overall gross profit landed at 63.7% for the full year 2022. That represents a 0.3%, 30 basis points improvement compared to the same period of 2021. The main driver of that margin appreciation is very much on the price mix. The one that we described on the top line, helping our growth, it's also helping our profitability and the continuous manufacturing efficiencies that operations have found throughout 2022 also helped our delivery on the gross margin side. From an operating expense standpoint, I would say, diligent management and investment in our operating expenditure structure. On one side, we announced our investment, for example, in the sales force. On the frame business, we invested to increase the number of sales reps in many different geography to improve our capillarity, our coverage, our distribution of our brands throughout the world. And at the same time, we kept a pretty good diligent management of our general and administrative expense. And as a matter of fact, you can see that our operating profit on an adjusted basis deliver 70, 80 basis points -- 70 basis points appreciation compared to the 2021 level, 16.1% to 16.8%. And that represents a growth of 18.5% over the 2021 period on a pro forma basis. Below our adjusted operating profit, I would highlight a pretty tight management of our cost of debt, our financial expenses. And we all know that we're living in an environment in which interest rates during the last 15, 16 months have been increasing quite exponential. We've been capable to reduce the cost of debt. We are protecting the company as 95% of our gross debt is fixed. But not exposed to interest rate fluctuation. And our overall cost of debt for the full year 2022 is less than 1% for the group. The overall tax rate is broadly aligned what we've seen in 2021. And therefore, we are looking at the net profit growth at a double-digit pace. I mentioned before very quickly our Q1 strategy. If we look at the results here, clearly, we are happy with the 9.7% that we achieved. First of all, because all the geographies were trending on the positive territory. The most mature market namely North America and EMEA grew in the high single-digit territory and the fast-growing market, the part where we want to become even bigger over the longer term are running on a double-digit pace. The second part -- second important thing to highlight is that in Q1, we actually grew on top of the best quarter that we had in the Q1 2022. So we had the toughest comparison base and on top of that, we delivered a growth that is fairly close to 10%. With that, I conclude my speech and pass it over to Alexander. Thank you.

Thank you, Stefano. And now I'd like to hand over to Norbert Gorny, Co-Chief Operating Officer and Head of R&D Lenses at EssilorLuxottica and Federico Buffa, Head of Eyewear R&D, Product Style and Licensing.

We are delighted to have the opportunity to share a few insights into the work of R&D with you. And I would like to begin with giving you an overview of our global activities. As an open network company and a leader in our field, growing our market has become a strategic imperative to us. We deploy many means to get us there, but innovation, we consider as one of the most important levers to make the difference. Federico and myself, we have the pleasure to run a global network of highly skilled experts from all over the world, our North America, of course, our home countries, Italy and France, the biggest community of R&D experts, but we also stretch out to the most important markets in Asia. EssilorLuxottica has become home to thousands of designers, engineers and researchers supporting us every day in our effort to deliver desirable eyewear and highly advanced lens technologies. If we take all of our efforts, as depicted to you on this map combined, Federico and myself, we command more than 70% of the industry's investments in innovation, which is absolutely remarkable. And I think we can state without exaggeration, the industry wouldn't be where it is today without us taking the responsibility and the investments, as just pointed out. Please allow me now to take a deeper dive into the activities in the lens technology part. I would like to actually take 3 major thrusts of ours to point out where we are heading. We are firstly very engaged in establishing completely new lens categories, addressing new needs of consumers and customers. Our second major thrust is to extend the existing product categories, for example, progressive lens area. And thirdly, we are highly engaged in simplifying the access to more advanced eyewear by reinventing the consumer and the dispensing journey with digital global initiative. Let me point out, firstly, what it means to establish a new category. You have heard Stefano talking about our growing -- fast-growing business in the area of myopia control. This is root cause on our activities that started more than 30 years ago that we were pioneering myopia research. And now finally, after such a long period of time, we see ourselves as EssilorLuxottica, well prepared with a broad portfolio of offerings, clinically tested and well secured by intellectual property to launch a new category in a global activity that reaches out with our flagship design, Stellest, to more than 25 countries at this moment in time. And this is just the beginning of a journey because our pipeline is well filled, new technologies in that area of application that will allow us to serve every child in need anywhere in the world. Extending an existing category and talking about progressive lenses cannot be done without mentioning that more than 60 years ago, Bernard Maitenaz was the person here in the Paris area that invented Varilux, the first industrial progressive lens ever. Since then, our teams have never stopped to develop and stretch this technology into a fast-changing environment of visual behavior, and to improve generation after generation. It is with some right that we announced today that as we speak, the generation #9 of Varilux will be introduced into the market. We're talking about Varilux XR Series, which despite of the fact it's the ninth generation of a product, it is a true breakthrough in terms of technology. We have dared to apply for the very first time, artificial intelligence in the development of a design that comes as the most customized lens ever in this field of [ technology ]. There's 2 major innovations around that, that are predicated on millions of patient data that we analyze and that made us learn about how to discover the natural visual behavior of a patient and how to translate this into a highly personalized project to put forth the responsive eyewear project, with that the XR motion technology. This is absolutely proprietary to our company. Thus, independently conducted consumer tests have proven Varilux XR Series is the best overall progressive lens ever. But what's the use of having the best technology if access is limited only to experts. We have conducted a lot of studies how to improve accessibility to a highly advanced eyewear. We came to the conclusion it must be us starting a global digital initiative to lower the thresholds in terms of accessibility, to lower the threshold in terms of gathering patient data and to process them correctly. Starting with advanced refraction technology, all the way down to the dispensing protocols including new products that we mostly, in the last 12 months, introduced like by Connect or Eclips or Spark which are mainly in the area of sun frames. With this and with our learning platform, Leonardo, we finally democratize, the know-how that is needed to advance eyewear and to enable the industry to grow further successfully. And we have the video on Varilux, please. [Presentation]

It's innovation that drives us in R&D every day, innovation that drives us as a company and thereby the industry, not just in the lens part but also in the frames.

Yes. Thank you very much, Norbert. So let's see now a little bit together where our frames and sun lenses R&D is addressing actually its attention. Also in this case, we are looking at 3 main directions. Starting from the first one, this is quite important for our medium and long-term strategy for our company is regrouping all the initiatives that they are bringing wearable technology on board on our products. Frames and lenses making them every day a little bit more smart. Different kind of use cases, health and care. We have just seen from Norbert's presentation, how important is the number of hours that our kids will wear the Stellest myopia management lenses. And so having the possibility to track and trace that with frames is so important, like recovering some customer disease in this part of the sense contributing with some super power to their frames. The other use cases is still the social and entertainment. We are continuing our partnership with Meta. 1.5 years ago, we launched the Ray-Ban Stories with the proposal of disintermediated smartphone in between day and their joyful life following our customer to image capturing, sharing, music listening, phone call answering always with a free hand way of working. We are introducing new innovation. And in a few months, we will be ready to have the launch of the second release of these kind of products. Also having a look at other use cases like the sport performance -- the professional performance, where naturally, we are trying to sustain with technology also our customers that they want to track day-on-day, the improvement on their sport or job. The second -- moving in the second scenario in the second bucket in the center of this slide. Naturally, we are squeezing a little bit our researchers every day to bring us new sustainable product solution towards the circularity, trying to be coherent and launching products, they are in line with our eyes on the planet corporate sustainability program that in few minutes, Elena will bring back on the stage again to share with you. But also looking at the part of our brand portfolio that they are mainly looking and try to talk with the young generation, Gen Z and Gen alpha is really mandatory to have a complete offer, a complete collection that they are fully 100% sustainable. Biobased material, recycled material, manufacturing processes that they are fully sustainable, packaging included, the way in which we distribute those kind of products, reducing the impact. Here, we are reporting the last example. One example of these brands, the Emporio Armani see green collection that we had just released in this day and also here in Paris, I've seen yesterday that the advertising campaign outside is really fading green all the emotion because this is really the core signal and the core communication connected with this collection. Last but not least, the 26 R&D center that Norbert was showing you before in the map, we are every day struggling to find new material, new process and new technology, to continue to innovate, renovate and maintain more than also the more traditional part of our business. So what we used to call the analogical frames, some frames, prescription frames and some [ panel lenses. ] And today, I'm so proud to share on the stage with you the latest iconic Ray-Ban collection that has been enabled after 1 year of research of those centers due to the fact that we overcome 1 boundary that our eyewear designer has to work on every day. It is the fact that the actual and traditional some lenses, they are always spheric. They are always convexed. And so somehow, they are limiting their capability in designing and imaging new silhouette, new shapes. Finally, our team has been capable to release a new mathematic, a new program, a new way of producing patent solution on which we are able to produce what we used to call the freeform lenses. So moving some lenses from a spherical shape to a convex shape with 0 distortion and moreover, to increase the acuity and the visibility of our sun lenses. This is the reason why we call HDI-definition lenses. And moreover, to free up our designer to renovate some iconic shape like Aviator, Wayfarer, Boyfriend or Caravan. And so arriving at this point, and thank you on my side and for your attention. We wish you enjoy the rest of the day, enjoy the video and moreover, to enjoy the Ray-Ban Reverse collection. [Presentation]

[Interpreted] Thank you for that presentation, Norbert. It's now my pleasure to hand over to Chrystel Barranger, President of Wholesale EMEA and President of Transitions Optical, who will explain how EssilorLuxottica is driving the market.

[Interpreted] Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very happy to be with you today. And I would like to explain in just a few minutes how EssilorLuxottica is driving the market globally. [indiscernible] is powerful. It's a powerful purpose, helping the world to see more and to be more and it addresses an essential need. We are lucky because we are driving a market that has a meaning that makes sense. Every action -- daily action has an impact on the lives of millions of people. It's a source of inspiration for us. It motivates the 190,000 people working for EssilorLuxottica. Now let's have a look at the market. The market represents 100 billion globally. The market is driven by the need to improve vision and correct vision. 86% of the value is connected with prescription lenses. It is an expert market. More than 50% of the value is created in collaboration with independent eyewear professionals. And it's also a market where 90% of the value can be found in physical shops, 400,000 of doors across the world. Lenses and glasses are visible, and they have a huge impact in the life of those who wear them. They are made to measure based on prescription and different styles. Precision is absolutely essential for people to see well. And for this essential purchase, the client, customer will trust the eyewear professional and the eyewear professional will trust us to supply the product. So therefore, the market makes sense, has a huge potential and a huge potential for growth. Across the world, we estimate that 50% of the needs for eyesight correction are being addressed. Not in a uniform way, depending on the geographical area. Unfortunately, there are places where there is a huge delta, aging of the population and the increase of myopia is reinforcing the needs. The need for sports and luxury, Sun Eyewear is developing, an innovation through digitalization of the consumers' access to the products and the fact that we are reinventing the use of connected eyewear, which means that we can do much more than just see better. All this is a potential for growth, a huge, very strong potential for growth for the whole industry. Now EssilorLuxottica has a strong ambition for the future of visual acuity. As a world leader, we are fully aware that we have a responsibility. We're fully committed to help the market grow. Last year, the group reached EUR 24.5 billion and a 13% growth. And -- but beyond those figures, we can see that we have a local presence across the world, we have a mesh in with 300,000 people, experts working on the field. We have a multichannel distribution pattern. We sell to professionals. We sell to our customers in our 18,000 shops, and we sell online. And professional solutions are at the very heart of our activity, more than 55% of our revenue. But it also means more than 75% of our connection directly with the consumers. Nowadays, we are a 360-degree vision expert. We can perform eye examination with our instruments, but also provide state-of-the-art solutions. EcoDesign is necessary for the fashion market. We have used electronic technology. And all of these competencies and skills represent and -- as well as our brand portfolio with brands such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, Essilor transition and all the licensed brands provide us with a limitless potential for differentiation, innovation, and we can reinvent ourselves on our products, but also our services to consumers. Thanks to data. And for the services that we provide to our partners. We are strong because of our world network to distribute products. Produce and delivering 2 million prescription lenses per day or creating 3,500 models, frames per year require a chain of excellence, reinforced by our culture. We have a service-oriented culture both for services provided to our customers and also to consumers, both in our shops and online. And based on these basic elements, we made 3 choices: innovation and technology; two, for the future to create value for the whole industry and introducing on the market last year, Ray-Ban Story, the platform Leonardo are very good examples. We have also made the choice of partnering up with many experts in the industry. And finally, we decided to be a responsible leader because we are fully committed, and Elena and I will explain these commitments to you. So we have a double agenda as a group, this recently created group. We want to reach high performances but we also want to change and I will give you the example of the EMEA area, which I have the honor of leading. I am in charge of Professional Solutions as of 2021. EMEA is a large area. It's the first market for eyewear across the world. It's the second market for EssilorLuxottica, EUR 8 billion revenues in 2022. The growth was achieved in spite of a very challenging market, as Stefano said, both for professional solutions and also direct-to-consumer with a good balance between lenses and frames with a good growth on -- top of the range offer in both categories. Now growth in this important area covers 52 countries was possible in mature markets, such as France and Italy but also we accelerated our growth in the less developed areas, such as Eastern European countries and Middle East and Turkey. Just a few words about France, one of our historical markets. It is the second market for the group following the U.S. So we are deeply rooted in France, more than 10,000 people working for EssilorLuxottica, 18 laboratories, and it's also a key country for research and development, thanks to the technology [indiscernible] the new dedicated center -- dedicated to connected eyewear in Dijon. We invest in France. We have created an [indiscernible] which will drive the demand for eyewear made in France. And we are partnering with all eyewear professionals, and we are very proud to be working with Mbappe's Oakley. EMEA is also providing very good performances. Last year, within 1 year professional solutions, operational solutions, we integrated lens and frame activities in many countries. We now have a single phase. We have integrated showrooms and our customer partnership programs are being united. And direct-to-consumer has also developed at the same pace in the area with integrated GrandVision, and we are making progress with the GrandVision integration on a daily basis. EssilorLuxottica is looking to the future and our growth levers are clear. We want to continue growing in the less advanced geographical areas, especially Asia, Middle East, Turkey, Latin America. We want to support and drive the growth on the market by increasing awareness for the need to correct visual acuity, especially for myopia management, and we want to train our partner professionals and the Leonardo platform is doing a great job in less than 2 years, 440,000 hours of training have been provided for eyewear professionals last year. Innovation. We've also discussed this extensively in new categories, but also more traditional products, and we are launching [indiscernible] and Ray-Ban progress. And we are now organizing our omni-channel distribution, professional solutions, direct-to-consumer. And we are looking for across-the-board activities by developing the photochromic category, which is also encouraged by the collaboration. Finally, digitalization and integration. We are fully aware of the impact that technology is having on this market. And the fact that it's going to open access to teleoptometry and many different services that we can provide to our consumers and partners so that we can make better use of data and also predict the future of our purchasing level. So in conclusion, we have a strong impact, just to give you an order of magnitude, 1,000 products delivered -- 1 billion, sorry, pieces delivered every year. But it's also the human-driven impact of 190,000 people are working for EssilorLuxottica. We are in connection with 300,000 experts to provide better vision to mankind. It's a beautiful job, and we share our passion for this job. This is what I wanted to tell you today. I was very happy to be able to spend this time with you, and I wish you a very fruitful meeting. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Chrystel, for this presentation. I'd like to give the floor to Elena Dimichino, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for EssilorLuxottica and Anurag Hans, Head of Mission, OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation. They will be speaking English. Elena will talk about the sustainable development approach on the group level. And Anurag will talk about action conducted in 2022 to contribute to eliminating bad vision, uncorrected eyesight. [Presentation]

Good morning, everyone. [Audio Gap] neutrality for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2025 globally. Starting in Europe this year with Italy and France already carbon neutral. And the key areas here are our continuous investment in renewable energy, self-produced or purchase. It's the constant focus on reducing the carbon footprint of our supply chain, starting with our logistic activities of course, but it's also the attention that we put in the design and construction of new buildings or the renovation of stores. Lastly, our recently signed commitment to the science-based target initiative is another step forward in our sustainability program and marks the natural prosecution of our current climate road map. As on circularity, what you know here, let me say that our vertically integrated and open business model is a lever for sustainable innovation, as I've just seen before, but is also an enabler of circularity, where the product is naturally at the center. I think starting, of course, from the careful research and selection of alternative renewable materials instead of fossil-based materials. Think about biobased acetate, biobased nylon or also our ability to recycle nylon [ scraps ] in-house. But also the acquisition, for instance, of a Fedon in 2022 has also added to our sustainable innovation in packaging. And then lastly, another important stage in our circularity journey is made by our retail stores. And here, we really try to engage the consumers in expanding the product line, for instance, benefiting from in-store repair services. We are a diverse community of 190,000 employees in over 150 countries. And over -- in 2022, we continued to use the Leonardo learning platform to foster our inclusive culture by hosting several round tables around the very important topics during international days, like the International Day of persons with disabilities or more recently, the International Women's Day. But inclusion path is also through well-being and safety initiatives. And here, let me just mention all the life balance of support and the prevention initiatives that we have at all our premises. Lastly, the other important point that I would like to mention is the fact that all these efforts, of course, have made our company recognized in different rankings such as the Financial Times Diversity leaders list or the France Quality Index in France. But our responsibility towards vision and society is also the convergence of our mission, advocacy for good vision on the road and our attention also to the cultural and heritage protection. So we have just renewed actually our strategic partnership with the United Nations to promote good vision on the road, starting with the rollout of a global awareness campaign across our business network. In 2022, just as a nice piece to say, we continue, of course, to keep our eyes on art, and here, we continued with using actually the digital broadcasting capabilities or [indiscernible] textile exhibitor with our important partners. And so we work all together to make the difference for our planet, for all of us, for our kids and for future generations. But if you ask me whether our efforts are contributing to a specific cause, I will say our mission. And here, I'm pleased to give you the mike, Anurag.

Thank you, Elena. [Foreign Language] Hello, everyone. It is my pleasure to be with you here today to give you an update on our mission to help everyone, everywhere, see more and be more. As we all know, 2.7 billion people in the world, that's 1 in 3 do not have access or awareness of good vision. And at EssilorLuxottica, we are very aware of our responsibility to lead the fight against this public health issue. One year ago, at this meeting, I have the privilege of launching the OneSight EssilorLuxottica foundation. As a sign of our commitment to lead the fight against uncorrected poor vision, we consolidated all our philanthropic and advocacy actions under 1 umbrella. In 2022, with our partners, we helped equip more than 10.5 million people with a pair of glasses. This translates to about 20 people equipped with a pair of glasses in underserved communities every minute. And the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation is the world's largest vision care foundation targeting uncorrected refractive errors by [indiscernible]. Thanks to the work of our teams, employees, partners and supporters. To date, the group has equipped more than 60 million people around the world in underserved communities with eyeglasses. Most of them enjoying the gift of good vision for the first time in their lives. We have also created more than 23,000 optical points in communities where optical points did not exist until we decided to act. But we still have so much more to do. Thanks to our efforts, we are now seeing more partners, governments and multilateral organizations join us in the fight against uncorrected poor vision. For example, in India and Kenya, we embarked on partnerships to deploy primary vision care providers that we have helped create to public and private health facilities add to the existing suite of health services on offer. In Bangladesh, our innovative partnership with the MetLife Foundation where 2 foundations with different development agendas, Vision Care and Financial Health came together to create impact in rural communities, was showcased on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last September. We are truly advocating for Vision Care at the highest level. In Africa, through our network of vision centers, we have created permanent access to vision care for 100% of the populations of Rwanda, The Gambia and Zambia, and we are committed to expanding to many more countries in the region. And closer to home here in Paris together with Oakley, we partnered with the French football icon, Kylian Mbappé and his foundation, to equip children from underprivileged communities with the gift of good vision. It also helped us raise global awareness about the impact that clear vision can have on the lives of kids. Around the world, our impact is felt in underprivileged communities in more than 110 countries. As a recognition for making a positive impact in the communities where it operates, the group, along with many other awards, was also awarded the sixth spot on the prestigious annual fortunes chain in the world ranking, which recognizes companies that have a substantial positive social impact as part of their core strategy. Well eliminating poor vision is an ambitious task but something that the entire EssilorLuxottica community stands committed. At the current scale, since the start of my presentation, we would have equipped more than 80 people with the gift of good vision. I look forward to continuing our efforts in line with our mission to help everyone, everywhere, see more and be more. And [ Mercy, Garcia, ] and thank you for your attention and support. Over to you, Alexander.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Elena. Thank you, Anurag. I would now like to hand over to Andrea Zappia, Chairman of the Nominations and Remuneration Committee, who will speak in English. I'd advise him to join us [ at election ] to present the remuneration policy applicable to the executive offices of the group.

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It's the part of our presentation. I agree very, very outstanding results across the board. I think we are all proud of it. We are all aware that not many companies in the world are able to deliver in this way for the broader community and the broader industry, shareholders, their colleagues and employees. So I'm here today to introduce you to the resolution concerning compensation, but can't do that without paying a moment of tribute to the Chairman, Leonardo Del Vecchio, an incredible man, entrepreneur that have shaped forever this company and the overall industry. And last year, as a Board of Director, we had to go to the unfortunate and very sad moment when he passed. And clearly, we are -- as a key priority to ensure continuity and stability of the business. And therefore, the Board of Directors took the decision to appoint Mr. Milleri as new Chairman, as you know, on top of his position as CEO, confirming Paul du Saillant as Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Deputy CEO and to also have a new addition to the Board of Directors, coopting, Mario Notari which is subject to your resolution #4, which would be last to approve. The biography of Mario is displayed here. It's an outstanding colleague that is already adding a lot of value to the work of our Board. And as Mario is here, and we ask him to stand up so that you can all know him. Thank you, Mario, and [ we're really, ] again, welcome. As part of these changes, the Board also decided to nominate a lead director, appointing Jean-Luc Biamonti in this role. And thank you, Jean-Luc for -- he is taking on this responsibility. Moving now to resolution 6 -- to #6 and then 7, 8 and 9. #6 concern the approval of the report of the corporate officers compensation for 2022. Resolution #7, 8 and 9, concern more specifically, the compensation awarded, as you can see here, the late Chairman of the Board to the CEO and the Deputy CEO. For everyone awareness, the compensation structure is fully in line with what was approved at the last shareholders' meeting last year. All compensation are displayed on the screen. The one thing I would also notice that this Francesco Milleri, as he took the Chairman role last year, didn't receive any incremental compensation for the period for 2022. It's also to note how the compensation remained highly skewed variable, 90% of the targets are financials. And given the outstanding performance, both on the financial side as well as in the corporate social responsibility side, we have seen a variable paid of 162%. Now I would like to also note how the company is in this -- following best practice and variable is valuable. Over the years, we have seen 0 bonus paid in 2019, going up to [ 23% ] in 2020 and then growing. So the same as pay for performance that we hear a lot of is truly implemented in our company. Let's now move to the resolution related to 2023 compensation. Before that, just to remind the core pillars of the way we structure this. First of all, pay for performance, 80% is linked to the conditions that are absolutely quantitative, can be measured, and that's the job that the committee does with the support, particularly of the CFO during its review. There is a strong focus on long-term value creation, and that's why the importance of long-term incentive, which represent 50% of the compensation package. The shareholding policy allowed also broad numbers of employees that you see to own shareholders, making sure that there is a very strong alignment between all the colleagues and the shareholder themselves. The last point is the corporate social responsibility element. Over the years, it has been increasing. It started at 5%. It was 10% last year, going to grow to 20% in 2023. Even here, criteria are demanding and measurable, and we are going to focus more on -- over this. Moving to the compensation of the corporate office, which are touch resolution #10, 11 and 12. I'm going to start from 10 and 12. There is total continuity versus the past year. The members of the Board of Directors total compensation has been stable since 2018, the only change this year's introduction of additional compensation for the lead director. The same is for the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, compensation remain unchanged versus 2021, and you see represented here. Then as for resolution #11, which is about the compensation of the Chairman and CEO, this was a different process. So as a committee and then as a Board, we looked at the new role we had in Francesco, took on the responsibility. And the first thing is we said, why should we review this? And the reality is that there are several reasons why required a proper work and assessment. First of all, it's a new responsibility, [ and just regarding ] the job of a Chairman of the company. But second is happening when the company has completed 2 integrations, has become a group which get together 3 big champions like EssilorLuxottica and now GrandVision. The third element was that the world is changing rapidly. We have seen our strongest technology impacting the job that we do. And it is going to just be more. And we wanted to make sure that the strategy that has led us here to this great success could continue over time, safely and reassure also our investors that this was the case. So continuity was extremely important in this. And then, it goes to how. How do we define a new compensation? We started from designing a group of peers. And as we looked at this, we realized that the compensation of our Chairman and CEO was below the median of this peer group. A peer-to-peer group is a peer group representative, a company like ours, which is global operating sector, luxury goods to healthcare, to retail and does this across the world. So we reviewed this with the support of a third party, Willis Towers Watson, that help us through all the process, and we came out with a proposal, which maintained the principles of the current one and therefore, keep the compensation highly aligned with shareholder interest. So you see in this slide, the obvious resolution #11, which is the compensation of the Chairman and CEO. I would like to say that now at this level, finally, this is aligned between the median and the third quartile of the market of the peers. And as I said before, it remained highly skewed towards the results. And in my conversation with some of the investors, this was really highly appreciated. Before we conclude, quick look at the way we have set up the annual variable compensation, you probably remember, last year was 5 criteria. We reduced it to 4. And the other big changes that is committed a year ago, we raised the part around corporate social responsibility from 10% to 20%. And then in terms of the long-term incentive plan, again, here, the result of continuity in the principal and the concept in order to achieve 100% of divesting, the share price growth need to be at least 22.5% over the next 3 years. And the threshold towards this is 6.1%. The Nomination and Remuneration Committee will keep on operating in order to keep on improving in the coming years. The structure of this compensation stay in touch with our investors and with the market standards. Having said this, I hope I've given you enough view to allow you to express your point of view on this resolution, and I wish you a great rest of the day. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Andrea. Finally, to close these presentations, I will ask the strategy auditors to join us and more specifically, Mr. Guillaume Devaux to present the summary of their work.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Mr. General Counsel. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, this is my honor to present to you on behalf of the Statutory Auditors', PwC and Mazars, the reports that we have drawn up for you for this combined general meeting held today. All of our reports have been made available to you by the company and are included in the universal registration document filed with the AMF and published on the EssilorLuxottica website. As per good practice -- for best practice, I would like to summarize the terms of our reports and certificates issued for the ordinary general meeting, namely our reports to the ordinary general meeting on the accounts, regulated agreements and highest compensation systems and then our 3 special reports issued for the extraordinary general meeting. First of all, the reports on the accounts, the consolidated accounts of the group. I would like to remind you that the fundamental objective of our work is to obtain reasonable assurance that the accounts are free of material misstatements, that they have been prepared in accordance with general applicable accounting standards and that they give a true and fair view of the results of the operations, financial position and assets and liabilities of the group at the end of the financial year. Our audit took account of the specificities and characteristics of your group and our audit approach was shared with your finance department and presented to the Audit and Risk Committee of your group. The findings of our work were the subject of a detailed report that we presented to your Audit and Risk Committee on the 20th of February 2023, and your company's financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors on the 22nd of February, 2023. In sum, we issued an unqualified audit opinion on the annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statements for EssilorLuxottica for the year ending 20 -- 31st of December 2022. In our reports on the account, we stipulate the points that we consider to be the most important for the audit in general. These are key points in fields that required particular intention from us, from the result of the type, any risks of significant anomalies. Financial amounts involved, all [indiscernible] judgments considered important to appreciate the assumptions and estimates that underlie them. As you can see on the screen, these key points are for the consolidated financial statements. The assessment of recoverable value of goodwill and intangible assets; secondly, the valuation of litigation reserves and uncertain tax position and contingent liabilities. With regard to the financial company statements, we assessed the investment as the key points in our audit, our reports on the financial statements include for each of these points, the description of the risks are identified and the procedures we have implemented to address them.

[Interpreted] Here, you can now see a table covering the nature of all the relations required by law, but we don't have any observations. Now let me move on to report on related party agreements. No related party agreement has been reported to us to be submitted to your approval. We have only 1 agreement already approved from the previous year, and the execution went on during the previous fiscal year. There's a noncompetition agreement between your company and Mr. Francesco Milleri. We also have a report on pro forma financial information as well as the declaration concerning the compensation paid out. We have no observations. Finally, regarding the extraordinary general assembly. We have 3 reports regarding Resolutions 14, 16, 17 and 18. The reports, as by law regarding delegations and authorizations accounted to the board for a capital operation require no observations from us. We will establish an additional report if these authorizations were to be used by our Board of directors. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, thank you very much for your attention.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much for the work that you have achieved. We move on to the Q&A session, which will last for 30 minutes. Please allow me to draw your attention to the fact that we have received a number of written questions before the meeting. The Board of Directors before the meeting approved the answers, the replies provided to those written questions, and they were published yesterday on the company's website so that we have more time for a discussion with the shareholders. We are not going to read out to the [ reply supply ] to the written questions. Therefore, please refer to the written replies, which are published and disclosed on the company's website if you're interested. We can then move on to the Q&A session in the room. We could get questions from 5 of you before we answer the questions. And so that more people can ask questions. Every shareholder will be able to ask 2 questions. Please note that the questions being asked, have to concern the general assembly's agenda. And to make sure that a large number of our shareholders may be able to ask questions, please ask short questions. When you ask a question, I would also like you to introduce yourselves. There are young ladies and gentlemen in the room carrying the microphone. So if you'd like to ask a question, please ask for a microphone. Yes, I can see someone raising your hand.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for the figures. Congratulations for 2022. I have an observation. When I arrived this morning, I asked for a reference document. And I was told -- then I was able to scan 400 pages with my mobile phone and read the 400 pages on my mobile phone. This is well beyond my capacity, and I would like to know whether the CFO and the general manager and the CEO are capable of reading 400 pages on their mobile phones. So I had to insist for like 15 minutes. And finally, after 15 minutes, I was given the document. And once I reached room, everybody say, "my God, how did you obtain this document. No one else was able to obtain the document. " So I looked at the document, and I would like the statutory auditor to say that he certified the documents. And it was written that the written documents must be made available for the shareholders during the general assembly. And this is not what is happening. So first of all, please, Mr. CEO for the next general assembly, could you make sure that the reference document in a written paper form is available for the shareholders who request a copy of the document. And I would like the statutory auditors to make sure that the document is available for all the shareholders who request a copy. That was question #1. Question #2 is about competition. You did not or barely refer to competition. Could someone please elaborate on the competition. I was fairly surprised that out of the 9 people who took the floor this morning, few, a minority, maybe 2 or 3 spoke French. Does this mean that you can't find in France, somebody who will comply with your request to work for EssilorLuxottica. That was my second question. Another question, please?

[Interpreted] [ Francesco Dardi, ] shareholder of EssilorLuxottica, when it was listed on the Wall Street Stock Exchange, I too would like to pay homage to our Chairman, Leonardo Del Vecchio. For me, it has always been a miss, a person to follow. And the 27th of June last year was a very sad day for everyone, but certainly, his principles, his values, his vision will remain forever in the people who have known him. And I'd like to ask 3 very short questions. I saw the increase of turnover 13.9% between 2021, 2022. How much is due to volumes and how much is due to the increase of sales prices? Second question, the EssilorLuxottica share price in the last 2 or 3 years, has always been between EUR 150 and EUR 185. The psychological threshold of EUR 200 is a little difficult to reach. Have you ever thought of a share split 2 to 1, halving the value, perhaps the floating capital could increase and perhaps we can go above EUR 100 and the value of EUR 100 billion in stock market capitalization. Third question, how are the sales going for Ray-Ban Stories, I don't see that many around in the stores, perhaps it's my problem. I bought them immediately, but then after a few months, we had problems in downloading videos and pictures. They replace them, but even the new model still has the same problems, but perhaps I'm just unlucky personally. And last point, if this is the final venue you've chosen because I took part in 3 general meetings in Paris, always in 3 different locations. I'm just curious about this. Are you going to choose this for the rest of upcoming years. So congratulations for the exceptional results of this year too. Third question?

First of all, [indiscernible] shareholder, I would like to say congratulations for your results, and congratulation for your [ France support. ] But unfortunately, when we heard Federico, we saw a map on the screen and even you are a big expanding company, we saw that you have no point of sales and no point of producing in Central America, in South America, except Brazil and in Australia. And Australia could be also a very big market for us. So we don't know why you are not making any effort to settle in those parts of the world.

Number four, question number four. [indiscernible] individual shareholder. I'd like to go back to the first question. I too had trouble getting hold of a reference document. It's unbelievable that we actually have to fight to obtain a document, which should normally be given to us. Now a question regarding connected eyewear, what changes did you introduce so as not to make the -- repeat the mistake of Google glasses and the meta headsets, which apparently were a failure. Could we have a figure? Second question regarding competition with low-cost professionals. You consider this as a threat. And the fact that the French Health Insurance reimburses 100% of frames but low-cost frames. Was that an issue with the purchasing of luxury frames?

I'm an individual shareholder. I did not obtain the reference documents, so I had to read the document on my mobile phone. And I have a question regarding Resolution #13, if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Grassi, I'd like to ask my question in English. Share buybacks could you tell me what purpose each year the share buybacks are used for? And especially, could you give me a rough percentage of this use? For example, like the employee stock ownership plans account for 3% or something like this and so on. Finally, what is the difference between the purpose of buybacks and the dividends for you? [Foreign Language]

Thank you for the questions. We're going to reply to the five first question before we move on. Regarding the reference document. We hear you and we hear your request. We will take it into consideration. In the past, we found that less and less people asked for the paper document. And that's the reason why we did not have many printed versions available. So we do have a number of printed copies at the headquarters in here as well. We will take it in consideration for the next General Assembly as was requested.

Competition. Yes. I try to give a short description of competition. We represent 25% of the market. We thanks to the -- all the other players more as partners and as a competitor. You know that we operate on the wholesale channel, on the retail channel and the e-com. So we supply the independent optician or other store, and we supply directly the final customers through our B2C channels. So that is why we took 5 years ago, 4 years ago, this approach really not directly compete more to help the market to grow, to deliver better product at a better price. In this way, we can grow. We help all the other partners to grow. And at the same time, we can really deliver the best product to our customer. Say that the market is very high fragmented. There are more than 400,000 independent stores so that has really allowed the market to be very competitive. And since there are no barrier to enter and to supply, and no barrier for any independent optician to shift from one supplier to another, we really guarantee a full competition and at the same time, the capability to hold, to access to our research, our product, to our innovation. We don't reserve to our store, the innovation and new products. We give our product and our innovation at the same time to all players in the end market. And at the same time, we supply many of the other players with raw material with lenses, with plastic, with anything we can deliver, and we are also the best customers of many of the other players. So that is what we define an open-model approach, really looking to sustain the market first and the satisfaction of final cost. Thank you.

[Foreign Language] volume and mix. With frames, that balance is pretty evident. With lenses is probably more price mix driving the performance growth. But I want to remind you that when we look at the price mix, is not the price increase that drove our growth from a price mix perspective, more of the mix, the ability to innovate, launch new collections that have an additional content of technology as [indiscernible] that helped us to drive pretty much our price mix.

I take quickly the EUR 100 split. Best that we take the advice. It could be done. At the same time, we believe that our value on the stock market that is close to EUR 82 billion is not so bad. We are quite proud of what we achieved. But you are right, we have to aspire something better. We have this EUR 100 billion dream in our mind or [ EUR 200 ] share, we'll try our best to get there. I ask Federico Buffa to give some more colors on our wearable and Ray-Ban Stories. [Foreign Language]

I promise next time I'll speak in French. So a couple of questions. The assistance on the downloading of the of detailed Ray-Ban Stories, I can shortly connect with our assistant for the issue. So what about Ray-Ban Stories. Like we said before, we are trying to open new category, okay? First of all, I answer to the 2 questions. We tried to but learn from the lesson and from the past mistake done in the past, okay? You know that in the past, Luxottica was not yet EssilorLuxottica, cooperate with Google, at the Google Glass and we are partnering today with Meta, which we know very well what they've done with an Oculus frame. So it's a new category. So every time we are trying to learn from the lessons. One of the lessons learned was that, first of all, all our products from Ray-Ban stories on will be, first of all, are good glasses on which we try to add step-by-step if the technology will permit us superpowers. So we are not doing vice versa. We are not putting electronic and pieces or part of mobile phone on the faces. That was more or less some tentative that has been done at the time. But vice versa, we will first try to produce a good eyewear or a good only 4 grams more in term of weight. And then step-by-step, basic on what the technology will offer us, we will include in those frames for those frames more power. On the other side, so lesson learned from the past new action, on the other side is a new category. As a new category, there are also a lot of different law in the different countries. So the distribution is not always easy when you start to distribute product that they neither an electronic object nor an optical device or a medical device like all the optical frames. So sometimes you need to take time to work with each single country understanding each single rules and step-by-step, define how to distribute. Anyhow, basically on the actual distribution of Ray-Ban Stories, we are fully satisfied about the numbers that we are selling. We sold in the past year hundreds and hundreds of thousands of this product, and we are receiving a lot of feedback and a lot of insight for the next generation. As anticipated before, in a few months, we will have a new generation of products that we'll also implement the improvement that we learned from this 1 year 1/2 of experience on Ray-Ban Stories. Thank you.

I take the question of Central America presence of our retail. You are right. South America and Australia is -- are one of the most relevant countries for the future of our group. But at the same time, we are, by far, the biggest company in retail, in many countries, in Central, South America and Austria. In Central and South America, we have more than 2,000 direct operated stores. So we are in each country, also in the country where sometimes is not easy to stay and to manage store because of local instability. Australia, for us, is a special place. We have 400 stores with a small population. We have huge lab. We have presence on wholesale. We really managed the best, also the e-com on Australia. So I take really the suggestion and advice to focus on that area, but I assure you that we are doing very well. We are very strong in that area, and we are increasing our presence everywhere. Thank you.

I'll do it in French. So excuse me, the offering on the market on every region is an offering where we had every price point for it, be it for lenses, frames or sunglasses. So it's a market that is structured with a very broad pyramid of products and retail outlets. And there has always been in every market, a presence of retailers with offerings on market entry points at lowest price points and then middle of the range points and then added value, quality price point. So this is nothing new. There have always been retailers in France, but also in every other market offering very, very broad product mix. So from that broad offering, the consumer can make his other choice. So it's a market where supply is very significant. The consumer can choose quite freely, the market dynamics are very healthy. The position of your group in this is very complex. We have a broad offering in frames, in sunglasses and of course, in lenses worldwide and we adapt that offering to the demand from retail outlets. Now your question was more about the French market. Now we have not been affected. We were supporting that offering on that supply. We have a basket, what we call the A basket, the B basket. Our offerings are very well positioned with regard to Basket A and a wide range for Basket B. The group offering in France, in particular, is perfectly well adapted to supporting that market structure.

I'll take the detailed question with respect to the buyback program. All our buyback program have been directed to serve the employees' performance plan. The purchase that we made in the course of [ 2022 ] grew approximately 3 million shares, do not serve all the amount of spending in terms of performance shares plan. And so this is a process that we will continue to carry forward. If you look at the Universal Registration Document of [ 2022 ], you will notice that we have EUR 6.8 million of outstanding share that will be awarded to the employees in the course of the following years. And the one that we own as of the end of 2022 amounts to EUR 2.4 million. Clearly, this is a problem that will be carried over. The purpose of the buyback is what I described you, purpose of the dividends is obviously to provide a return to the shareholders. So are quite distinct in that respect.

Are there any other questions? Number 2?

Let me remember the past President, yes, which actually passed away last year. And also congratulate the current team, everybody refers to a leader, [ Mr. Milleri ], but I think it's the success of a company is the work of 190,000 people. And my question -- my first question is what is your dividend policy? Because here, we are talking about compensation of the Board and also buyback program related to the workers, which taking into notice, which I note. And -- but I do not -- I never heard about a dividend policy. So if there is no dividend policy, what is preventing you from setting one? And the second question is -- how do you see the future and the near future or we are seeing the current quarters. But where do you see the growth from 2024 since given all this period of uncertainty, which is actually for a company like this is less uncertain because it has been a good performer during an age of uncertainties. But where do you see the growth? In other words, what are you doing with all this cash flow that you're making this year in the year 2024? And this is my question. Thank you.

There is a question for number 1?

Individual shareholder, I had a question about [ talents ]. What have you decided to do for talent? What you're going to do to attract and retain high talented employees? And what you're doing, in fact, for these innovations after the Ray-Ban Stories and then also on the proportion of women? My last question is on digital, is on the level of proportion of women.