Alfonso Cerullo.
NEW YORK—This week, LensCrafters, part of EssilorLuxottica, announced the launch of the first LensCrafters Vision & Eye Health Center in Exton, Pa., a premium comprehensive eyecare and surgical offering in a modern, patient-centric environment. LensCrafters called the opening of this center the first step within its North American growth strategy, with a longer-term goal of “shaping the future of eye health and empowering people to reach their full potential through a holistic suite of vision care and surgical solutions made available under one roof.”
Following this announcement, Alfonso Cerullo, president of LensCrafters and For Eyes, spoke with VMAIL at EssilorLuxottica’s New York City showroom, where he discussed this development and the company’s future growth plans. “At the center of this vision are the patient and customer,” Cerullo told VMAIL. “What we want to do is to elevate the care in the communities that we serve.”
The LensCrafters Vision & Eye Health Center in Pennsylvania is open and seeing patients, the company announced yesterday. Cerullo told VMAIL that LensCrafters aims to have 10 surgical hubs by the end of 2026 and roughly 40 by the end of 2027, ensuring that LensCrafters is in the community providing eyecare as well as medical diagnosis and treatment. The company reported 926 total locations, including 85 shops inside Macy’s, at the end of 2025, according to VM’s 2026 Top 50 U.S. Optical Retailers report.
“The goal here is to create this hub-and-spoke model that represents this ecosystem of care where people can step in and be referred to the surgical hub in case they need it,” he said.
The center offers comprehensive eye health evaluations and innovative vision-correcting procedures, delivering coordinated care for conditions such as vision corrections, cataracts and glaucoma, LensCrafters said in its announcement. It will additionally provide a full spectrum of cutting-edge treatment options including implantable collamer lenses (ICL), refractive lens exchange (RLE), laser vision correction procedures such as LASIK, PRK, SMILE PRO and both standard and laser-assisted cataract surgery. Bruce Rivers, MD, a military-trained independent ophthalmologist, will head the center’s surgical leadership. Dr. Rivers is an expert in the fields of cataract and laser vision correction surgery.
At the center, “when a patient walks into a LensCrafters, we can check, holistically, their eye health,” said Cerullo. He explained that this development allows patients to remain within their LensCrafters practice if they need additional care, rather than having to be referred out. “In case they may need a procedure, seamlessly, they stay in the ecosystem,” he told VMAIL. “They can have their eyes checked and they can have their procedure.”
Cerullo also noted that this setup could allow for earlier detection of eye conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye and more, and that earlier detection and treatment within one practice could make dealing with insurance less complicated for patients.
“At the same time, we know that insurance wants early detection, preventative care,” he told VMAIL. “From the other side there are the hospitals that want to make sure that some of these treatments and diseases are outplaced. It’s really the perfect conditions for a player like LensCrafters to step into this industry in this way and make sure we fill this void.”
Watch VMAIL’s full interview with Cerullo in the video below.
