Vancouver-based online eyewear seller Clearly is set to get a new CEO given that longtime CEO Arnaud Bussieres is leaving the company this week.
Bussiers posted on LinkedIn that this is his last week at Clearly, which is owned by EssilorLuxottica. He added that he would not be staying with any division within EssilorLuxottica, which is the largest eyewear company in the world.
It is unclear who will take over from Bussieres at Clearly but the expectation is that the company will continue to operate.
This afternoon, however, the company said on its website: "We can't process orders at this time. We’re sorry – our checkout is closed due to system upgrades. We’re working hard to get up and running again, so please come back soon."
No one at Clearly or EssilorLuxottica immediately responded to BIV's requests for information about Clearly's future.
Bussieres sounded upbeat about the next stage of his career.
"I am excited for what is coming next: I will try an entrepreneurial adventure of my own," he wrote on Linkedin.
Bussieres started as a strategic projects director with what was France-based Essilor in 2012, according to Bussiers' LinkedIn profile.
Essilor in 2018 merged with Italian eyewear frame titan Luxottica in a 46 billion euro pact to form EssilorLuxottica, which trades on the Euronext Paris market (EL:FP), generated about 25.8 billion euros in 2022 revenue and is estimated to own more than 40 per cent of the world’s eyewear market.
Bussieres became chief of staff at Essilor, reporting to a group president in charge of Europe, in 2015. He shifted to Clearly as managing director in August 2017 and was promoted to be CEO in January 2018, replacing Roy Hessel.
Essilor bought Clearly for about $430 million in 2014.
Bussieres told BIV last year in an email that Clearly employed more than 200 people in Metro Vancouver and that it operated independently from other EssilorLuxottica divisions.
“Clearly is a diverse company with a management team represented by seven different countries, including Canada,” he said in the email.
EssilorLuxottica has executives based in North America outside Vancouver whose jobs are to oversee e-commerce operations.
BIV sent emails to Bussieres, and EssilorLuxottica's main media-relations team.
(Image: Clearly's website in the afternoon on June 30)
