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Article
Magrabi aims to consolidate regional leadership before entering new markets
Following up on our article last February about the expansion of MAGRABI Retail Group, the leading optical retailer in the Middle East region, we talked with Yasser Taher, who was appointed CEO of the family-owned group at the start of this year, after having served as Chief Operating Officer since ...
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Shamir launches myopia management lens
Shamir Optical Industry, the Israeli-based lens manufacturer, has announced the launch of Optimee, its first lens in the child myopia management segment. The launch follows the first-year results of a clinical trial with 126 children in Israel which showed that the new lens slowed by 43 percent the axial elongation ...
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Smart glasses win at CES 2024
Four pairs of smart-eyewear are among the winners of the latest Innovation Awards from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), whose 2024 edition is scheduled for Jan. 9-12, 2024, in Las Vegas. Ampere First up – in alphabetical order by company – is Dusk Rx, which the producer, Ampere, describes as ...
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ANFAO taps Lorraine Berton as new president
Lorraine Berton has been elected as the new president of Italian eyewear association ANFAO, becoming the first woman to hold the position and succeeding Giovanni Vitaloni, who had served as president since 2017. Berton will lead the association for the next four years. Berton is the co-owner along with her ...
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Afflelou Group ends fiscal year on a strong Q4
Afflelou Group ended its fiscal year with a strong fourth quarter as network sales grew by 8.1 percent year-on-year to €232.9 million, accelerating from the 4.2 percent growth reported in the previous quarter. The uptick was particularly noticeable in France as sales grew by 7.3 percent year-on-year in Q4, compared ...
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An optical center in 15 minutes and a new investor for Vision Group
Vision Group, one of Italy’s leading eyewear retailers, aims to expand its domestic footprint further before looking at eventual growth opportunities further afield. Marco Procacciante, CEO, talked to Eyewear Intelligence about Vision Group’s growth plans, which are aimed at serving 85 percent of the Italian population with a VisionOttica store ...
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Synsam improves margins, expands EyeView roll out
For the first time since the company went public in October 2021, Synsam Group fell short of reporting a double-digit increase in quarterly sales, however not by much as the group’s topline grew by 9.9 percent year-on-year to 1,450 million Swedish crowns (€127m) in Q3. While this confirms the company’s ...
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EssilorLuxottica integrates Bliz to sports portfolio
EssilorLuxottica has announced the integration of BLIZ, a brand of sport eyewear, snow goggles and helmets, in its sport portfolio which already includes Oakley and Costa. The brand was previously owned by Future Eyewear, a Swedish-based eyewear company selling and distributing other brands like Dr. Zipe (sport eyewear), Prestige (sunglasses) ...
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National Vision moves to offset Walmart divorce impact, on track to meet FY guidance
National Vision announced steps to offset the impact on profits of the previously announced end of its partnership with retailing giant Walmart next year, as it released third-quarter results showing it remains on track to meet full-year guidance despite a macroeconomic environment described as “challenging”. Starting in 2024, the company ...
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Warby Parker sees sales growth slowing after 14% jump in Q3
Warby Parker sees sales growth moderating to 8-10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 after revenues in the third quarter jumped by 14.2 percent compared to the year earlier to reach $169.8 million and comfortably beat management’s guidance of 9.5-11 percent growth. Dave Gilboa, co-CEO, told analysts in a ...
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Marcolin sees Q3 sales slip 10%, bolsters house brands with ic! berlin buy
Marcolin slipped into contraction territory in the third quarter, with sales in the period declining by 10.4 percent to €113 million as the group highlighted weakness in the Americas region and a “global context marked by complex socio-political and economic scenarios”. The sales decline came after a second quarter in ...
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Mister Spex posts mixed Q3 results
Mister Spex has reported a significant drop in revenue growth pace for the third quarter of its fiscal year as continued depressed consumer sentiment and unfavorable weather conditions negatively impacted its business. The company however stressed that it was continuing to outperform the market and to deliver on its ...
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Fielmann reports strong Q3, launches eye health services
Fielmann Group has announced a 12.2 percent year-on-year increase in external sales to €602 million including VAT for the third quarter of 2023, in line with the 13 percent growth reported earlier for the first half of the year. In volume, however, Q3 sales increased by a more modest 2.2 ...
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Thélios acquires Barton Perreira
Thélios, the eyewear entity of LVMH, has announced the signature of an agreement to acquire Barton Perreira, the U.S.-based luxury eyewear brand. The acquisition follows only a few weeks after that of Vuarnet, the French high-end sports eyewear brand, underlining the expansion of Thélios’ business into proprietary brands and designer ...
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Smith rebound cushions Safilo’s Q3 revenue decline
The Safilo Group has reported a second consecutive quarter of topline decline as total Q3 revenue dropped by 9.8 percent year-on-year to €260.4 million, with sales declining both in North America and Europe that together account for over 80 percent of sales. Aside from strong currency headwinds, the company attributed ...
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iVision Tech CEO details group’s strategy
Still a relatively newcomer in the Italian and international eyewear sector, iVision Tech has gathered a lot of attention from the industry in recent months with the company’s debut on the Euronext Growth Milan stock exchange this summer and the acquisition of French high-end eyewear maker Henry Jullien just before ...
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HOYA lens growth driven by international markets and MiYOSMART in Q2
HOYA CORPORATION has reported a 2.5 percent year-on-year increase in Q2 group revenue to 188.7 billion Japanese yen (€1,182m) as the solid growth of its Life Care business unit and currency tailwinds offset another steep decline in the IT division’s quarterly sales. At constant rates, the Japanese group’s topline was ...
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Is Marcolin going to change hands?
According to insider information leaked to Bloomberg, PAI Partners, the majority shareholder of Marcolin Group, is looking to sell its stake in the company and has appointed Goldman Sachs to gauge the market’s interest in a deal that would value the eyewear manufacturer at approximately €1.35 billion. The French-based ...
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Akoni Group puts focus on craftsmanship-loving opticians and consumers
In the wake of the recent Silmo show in Paris, where the company was exhibiting its eyewear collections – house brand Akoni Eyewear and licensed fashion brands Balmain and Valentino – for the first time, we talked with Rosario Toscano, CEO of Akoni Group, about the DNA and the development ...
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10-year old Swiss Eyewear Group has passed the 20 million pairs’ mark
Swiss Eyewear Group, the eyewear company behind the INVU brand of polarized sunglasses, has announced that it has sold over 20 million pairs since the creation of the company ten years ago. As reported then in Eyewear Intelligence, the company was founded by a group of former senior managers of ...