History

It was in the beginning of the 70’s that Mr. Abdelaziz Sellami, the first Tunisian optician with diploma, has created “la société industrielle de verres optiques” or (SIVO), a little mineral lenses treatment workshop based in Sfax, the most important economic pole in the country. It was an exceptional event in Tunisia, a young nation searching for its social, financial and economic establishment.

Today, SIVO is a group of enterprises and subsidiaries which have optic activities as the most important concern.
SIVO is also the property and the distribution of instruments for opticians and optic and sunglasses in Tunisia and many other African countries. And here is the story of a successful project:

70’s – 80’s: the beginning

Mr.Abdelaziz Sellami, a successful Tunisian businessman, coming from Sfax, where he grew up and lived until he moved to France to continue his studies in optic and optometry.

After he came back in Tunisia, the young optician had the cleverness and the audacity to get involved in the optic industry to fulfill the needs of a dependent Tunisian market to foreign importations then.

SIVO’s, SIVO laboratories later, has been launched in Sfax in a 200m² workshop situated in “Rue de l’Algérie”, with only 17 employees.

In 1973, the company has been removed in a more spacious area, in the industrial zone, “la poudriére 1” in Sfax.

 

At this moment, SIVO was challenging the importations, in a hand, and the Tunisian costumer’s behavior which was not used to local products, in the other hand. And this was the beginning of our beautiful story.

80’s – 90’s: a far-reaching project

In the beginning of the 80’s, and with a 10 years experience, SIVO gained an enormous notoriety with the professionals. A local business dealing with professionalism and know-how image was beautifully spreading.

Going from there and with the ambition to satisfy our client’s needs, SIVO has begun to rearrange premises to integrate the coloration of mineral and organic lenses field. It was also the occasion to get new machines to be able to face the increasing demand of prescription lenses.

Nowadays: the golden age

SIVO laboratories started proudly and with self-confidence this period. Knowing that the visual well-being of each one is too important, we managed to invest considerably in long-time R&D.

The godfathering of many educational and informative programs related to optic is witness to our engagement for a better vision all over the world.

Such voluntarism is promoting SIVO in an international way, particularly in the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa since the year 2000.

Today, we have a diversity in our products (Plenitude®, Hyper 60®, Premium®, Orgam® et Optithin®…) that allow us to be leader in Tunisia and a real challenger in the countries where we are exporting.