All Article articles – Page 106
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Hal will consolidate Safilo in its accounts
Even though the Dutch holding company Hal Holding NV does not have a majority stake in Safilo, IFRS accounting rules oblige it to consolidate the Italian company on a line-by-line basis as of Jan. 1, 2014. Hal, which currently owns 42.2 percent of Safilo, would thus benefit more directly from ...
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Essilor completes the acquisition of Coastal and Transitions
Essilor International and PPG Industries, which shared ownership of Transitions Optical, have made important management changes after the completion of Essilor's acquisition of the 51 percent stake it did not own in the company and of Intercast. The operations have been consolidated into Essilor's accounts as of April 1.Transitions and ...
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Modest growth and new head for Alcon
Alcon Vision Care's sales rose by 5 percent in local currencies in the first quarter, but translated into U.S. dollars, they grew by 4 percent to $626 million, driven by “robust” sales of Dailies Total1 and other contact lenses, says its parent company, Novartis. The AirOptix brand saw moderate growth ...
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Allergan seeks to fend off a takeover by Valeant
Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the Canadian company that took over Bausch & Lomb a year ago for $8.7 billion, has proposed to take over Allergan as well, at a price that would reportedly value the company at $45.6 billion. It's a very high price for Allergan, which made a net profit of ...
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Ocuco buys another company, sets up a base in China
Ocuco has made two important strategic moves in the last few weeks. It has acquired See20/20, which has a cloud-based store management system for opticians. It has also decided to set up an office in Shanghai to develop the group's presence on the Chinese market, particularly for its optical laboratory ...
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Improving Safilo repositions Carrera as a lifestyle brand
Safilo's new management has already announced that it will reposition Carrera, and the company unveiled the broad lines of the program for this house brand while commenting on its results for the first quarter of 2014. The company said that Carrera's prescription frames are enjoying an “excellent” reception by clients ...
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Clearlab wants to establish its own brand in Europe
Clearlab, the Singapore-based supplier of contact lenses, is determined to establish its own brand in Europe now that it can offer the first biocompatible silicon hydrogel lenses in the market, after seven years of research and development. The new product line is due to be followed in the last quarter ...
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The U.S. optical business improved in March
The overall rating of the U.S. optical business environment rose to 3.72 in March from a February rating of 3.65, according to the Optical Business Barometer (OBB) compiled by Jobson Optical Research. The rating deteriorated, however, as compared to March 2013, when it stood at 3.84, and was worse also ...
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The ECV calls the EU to take measures to promote eye health
The European Coalition for Vision (ECV) met on April 1 with the European Union's Directorate General for Health and Consumers and with Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, to reiterate its call to include eye health and vision in the European political agenda. The ECV said that EU authorities ...
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The latest numbers on contact lens sales in Europe
In 2013, sales of contact lens sales to eye care professionals (ECP) across a combined 33 European countries reached €1,468, marking a 3.6 percent rise on the previous year, according to the most recent census released by Euromcontact, the short name for the European Federation of National Associations and International ...
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Google continues to test Google Glass
Google held a 24-hour general sale of Google Glass device in the U.S. last April 15, inviting U.S. residents to order them for $1,500 on the internet. The initiative was described as a temporary extension of its “explorer” program intended to test the public's reactions, which continues to be limited ...
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Marcolin's integration with Viva follows interesting criteria
Marcolin is following a matrix management system and best-practice criteria for the integration of Viva International, the big American company that it purchased late last December. The integration process is still ongoing, but Giovanni Zoppas, the chief executive of the group, and other executives of the company agreed to share ...
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Luxottica’s first quarter was hit by unfavorable currency rates
Luxottica reported a 1.2 percent decline in first-quarter revenues to €1.842 billion due to unfavorable foreign exchange rates. At constant currency rates, sales were up by 4.2 percent. The company saw a decline, against the euro, in all five main currencies in which it trades, namely the U.S and Australian ...
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A relatively good quarter for Essilor
Sales increased more than expected at Essilor International in the first quarter ended March 31. They rose by 3.6 percent to €1,322.6 million, but they were up by 8.4 percent excluding foreign exchange currency conversions. Changes in the scope of consolidation represented six full percentage points of growth, with Costa ...
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A good quarter for Fielmann
Germany's largest optical retailer improved its sales by 9 percent on a same-store basis in its domestic market during the first quarter ended March 31. Its sales in the country moved up to €256.9 million from €231.2 million in the same period a year ago, and they resulted in an ...
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Fielmann has some new projects
The company is anticipating a doubling in its revenues from contact lenses and accessories in the coming years. Marc Fielmann, son of the group's founder and chief executive, Günther Fielmann, is leading a project to develop online sales of contact lenses in Germany at some future date, similar to an ...
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Some new figures from Germany
At its annual press conference, German opticians' association, ZVA, estimated that the German optical retail market increased againt to a total turnover of €5,438 million in 2013, but cautioned that the rise was mainly due to increased online sales. A total of about 500,000 eyeglasses were sold over the internet last year. ...
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De Rigo loses Zegna but should gain a big new brand in 2015
De Rigo should have a major new luxury brand in its portfolio next year. Negotiations are currently underway with a brand which, sources claim, has “strong recognition in Europe” - a continent that represents 60 percent of the group's wholesale business and is holding up well, in contrast with the ...
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Allison makes a good recovery
Allison closed 2013 with a turnover of around €50 million; this represents growth of 25 percent for the Italian company last year, and it more than makes up for the previous year's losses. The group's recovery can be attributed to three factors: the positive performance of some new house brands, ...
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Spy turns around, gearing up for expansion
Spy is aiming for a 50-50 sales split between sunglasses and prescription frames because of the much bigger number of optical accounts operating in the U.S. and the rest of the world. The number of its optical retail accounts in the U.S. has risen to about 1,000 from only 200 ...
