All Article articles – Page 108
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GetLenses acquires Vision Direct
GetLenses, which claims to have become the largest supplier of contact lenses in the U.K. in a very short time, has announced the acquisition of an older Dutch e-tailer, Vision Direct, which sells contact lenses as well as prescription glasses in various parts of Europe through the Vision Direct and ...
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Adlens and Mondottica stop their joint venture
Adlens and Mondottica have put an end to their joint venture, which they had formed at the end of 2012 to help Adlens cover mostly Europe and Turkey. The reasons for the split are not quite clear, but it seems that the product ranges offered by the two companies were ...
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Wooden frames that bend
WooDone, a young Italian brand of handmade eyewear carved from single pieces of wood, is introducing the first wooden prescription frames that can be adjusted to the wearer's head without breaking. The innovation will be shown at the company's stand in Hall 24 at the Mido fair starting tomorrow.After months ...
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U.S. optical business rating increases
The overall rating of the U.S. optical business environment was 3.70 in January, up from 3.65 in December, according to the Optical Business Barometer (OBB) compiled by Jobson Optical Research. The rating has however declined as compared to January 2013, when it was 3.84, or to January 2012, when the ...
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Essilor will buy Coastal
Essilor International says it is becoming the world's largest internet retailer in the ophthalmic optics sector with the acquisition of Coastal Contacts. The French company announced yesterday that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of the Vancouver-based digital retailer of eyeglasses ...
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Ocuco buys EMRlogic
Ocuco has acquired EMRlogic, the Vancouver-based supplier of the ODPro Practice Management System (PMS) and the activEHR certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) software system. Ocuco, with headquarters near Dublin, is the global software company behind the Acuitas PMS and the Innovations Lab Management System (LMS).Troubled by financial problems, EMRlogic had ...
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Seiko gets several patent claims confirmed
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has confirmed 20 Seiko Epson patent claims covering the invention of back-surface progressive lenses. The office has also ruled that six additional claims submitted by Seiko were patentable.On May 21, 2013, Ocuco had submitted a request for a re-examination of Seiko's U.S. patent ...
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Marcolin signs licensing deals with Zegna
Marcolin Group and Ermenegildo Zegna Group have signed a licensing agreement with exclusive rights for the worldwide production and distribution of sunglasses and eyeglasses for the Ermenegildo Zegna and Agnona brands. The deal has a 10-year duration and the launch of the first collections is expected for January 2015.De Rigo ...
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Italy’s export growth offsets a domestic slump
Italy's domestic eyewear sales have fallen for the fifth year in succession, while export markets are continuing to grow, confirming the positive results for the 2010-2012 period that followed on from the slump of the previous two years.In 2013 the turnover of the Italian eyewear industry grew by 4.3 percent, ...
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Sunwear and emerging markets to lift Essilor’s growth
Essilor International is targeting a sales increase of between 10 and 12 percent this year and a higher operating margin of between 18.2 percent and 18.6 percent, excluding the impact of its just-announced acquisition of Coastal Contacts (see the next article in this issue), which will probably dilute its profitability. ...
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Rodenstock’s sales exceed expectations in Germany
The Rodenstock Group saw sales increase by 4 percent, or 5 percent at constant exchange rates, to €401 million in the last financial year. Operating income before amortization (Ebtda) grew by 23 percent to €75 million, generating an Ebtda margin of 19 percent against 16 percent in the previous year.The ...
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Fielmann’s market share goes up
Fielmann sold last year 3.5 percent more glasses, or 7.3 million pairs, although the rest of the German optical market probably fell by 3 percent. The total market was more or less flat. The company's consolidated revenues for the year went up to €1.16 billion from €1.11 billion in 2012, ...
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Oxo Italia invests in marketing
Oxo Italia, a consortium of 16 regional cooperatives of optical retailers in Italy, has created a marketing and communications division headed up by Daniela Poletti, who was marketing manager for CooperVision Italia for the past 11 years.With 400 affiliated outlets in Italy, Oxo offers similar services to those proposed by ...
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Luxottica grows by 3.2%, aims for €10 billion in three years
Andrea Guerra, chief executive of Luxottica, believes that the company can reach annual sales of €10 billion in three years' time as the group continues to expand organically and through acquisitions. The group is investing significantly on Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, India and China. These are all countries that offer exceptional ...
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Germany’s optical industry reaches sales of over €4 billion
Thomas Truckenbrod, president of the German opticians' association, ZVA, reported at the Opti trade show in Munich that the German ophthalmic optics market recorded higher sales in 2013. After a drop in the first quarter, the number of frames sold in the stores increased slightly over the balance of the ...
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Essilor breaks the €5 billion barrier
In a preliminary statement, Essilor International reports a sales increase of 1.8 percent to €1,252.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. On a comparable basis, sales went up by 3.0 percent in the quarter. Changes in the scope of consolidation added 4.3 percentage points to the growth, but this ...
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Vision Express buys 65 stores from Rayners
Vision Express has acquired 65 stores from Rayner Opticians, representing 62 percent of Rayners' premises. The move brings Vision Express' number of stores in the U.K. and Ireland up to 367. Thirty eight of Rayner's U.K. stores will become part of the Vision Express portfolio and will continue to sell ...
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Google Glass adds RX and sunwear support, partners with VSP
Google is releasing its first collection of four prescription frames for Google Glass. The move comes as the company prepares to make the Google Glass technology available to the general population in the U.S. later this year. Until now, Google has not had corrective lenses in its frames. Google Glass ...
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New investors in Gold & Wood
Maurice Léonard, the 53-year-old entrepreneur who founded the company in Luxembourg in 1995, has opened its capital to two new investors and boosted its management to speed up its development in the core luxury segment and in new markets. Following a capital increase, whose details have been kept confidential, Léonard ...
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Luxottica buys Glasses.com as part of its digital transformation
In an asset deal, WellPoint has sold its Glasses.com business and its virtual try-on technology to Luxottica and its online contact lens retail subsidiary, 1-800 Contacts, to an equity firm, Thomas H. Lee Partners. Both transactions should be completed before the end of the first quarter.For Luxottica, its part of ...
