| pearle-Vision-eye-care-center-review-and-complaint.jpg200px | |
| Type | Eye care |
|---|---|
| Industry | Eye care |
| Founded | 1961 |
| Founder(s) | Stanley Pearle |
| Headquarters | Savannah, Georgia, United States |
| Products | Eyewear, glasses, sunglasses |
| Website | Pearle Vision |
Pearle Optical was founded by Stanley Pearle, an optometrist in Savannah, Georgia, USA in 1961. He also founded Pearle Vision (market name in the United States) in the same year. The company's European division, Pearle Europe, is now owned by the Dutch firm HAL Investments, also the parent company of Atasun Optik, Lensmaster and GrandVision. The North American Pearle Vision stores are owned by parent company Luxottica.
The Pearle chain of opticians in Europe has more than 1000 branches in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Finland and Estonia. For more than 40 years the company has been selling branded products and products under its own brand name. Its successful marketing approach, which has won numerous awards, has contributed to its strong growth. Pearle is the only chain of opticians with its own production facility for prescription lenses.
The first Pearle Optical store in the Middle East opened in Marina Mall, Kuwait on January 15 2003 and currently operates 18 stores in the Middle East: 4 in Kuwait, 10 in KSA, 3 in UAE and 1 in Qatar.
Notably, Pearle Vision has repeatedly experienced difficulty operating successfully in California. Its traditional business model directly conflicts with California's strong consumer protection statutes which are designed to prevent the obvious conflict of interest that arises when an optometrist and an optician practice side-by-side in the same business (one can prescribe more eyewear to be made by the other, thus inflating the overall profits of the business). On June 12, 2006, the Supreme Court of California ruled that Pearle Vision could not escape the reach of those statutes, and Pearle Vision's attempts to find a loophole through the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 were unavailing.[1]
Stanley Pearle died on July 21, 2011. He is survived by three children, 10 grandchildren and 11 great‐grandchildren.