Thiele is a chain of retail

optician An optician, or ''dispensing optician'', is a technical practitioner who designs, fits and dispenses lenses for the correction of a person's vision. Opticians determine the specifications of various ophthalmic appliances that will give the nec ...

s headquartered in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark. The company is owned by Jens Henrik Brandt (95%) and Profil Optik (5%).

History

The company was founded in 1817 when Frederik Anton Thiele (1792-1859) was granted a royal license to "manufacture and sell any kind of astronomic, mathematical, chemical, physical, optical, mineralogical and mechanical instrument or device". His son Johan Christian Thiele, who had studied both at the College of Advanced Technology and abroad, took on the company following the death of his father in 1859. He expanded the business but died just 39 years old in 1871. His widow then continued the operations until their son Frederik Axel Thiele (1866-1944) was ready to join it in 1888 after completing his training in professor Jürgensen's mechanical workshop and at the College of Advanced Technology. He was the sole owner of the company from 1891. His eldest son, Johan F. A. Thiele, joined him in 1921. The company was converted into an ''

aktieselskab ''Aktieselskab'' (; Abbreviation, abbr.: A/S, or a/s, Unicode ; literally meaning: "stock company") is the Denmark, Danish name for a stock-based corporation. An ''aktieselskab'' may be either publicly traded or private. Liability The sharehold ...

'' in 1824. It was granted status of

Purveyors to the Court of Denmark A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, an ...

in 1931. The first branch opened in Bispestræde in

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...

in 1929. Ot was followed by many new branches in the 1960s and 1970s. Jens F.A. Thiele, fifth generation of the Thiele family to own the company, sold it to Jens Henrik Brandt (95 %) and Profil Optik (5 %) in 2005.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Eyewear retailers of Denmark Danish companies established in 1817 Retail companies established in 1817 Purveyors to the Court of Denmark