All Article articles – Page 135
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Vecellio Occhiali Closes Down
Vecellio Occhiali, an Italian producer of spectacles that was acquired in 2008 by the private equity company Camelot Nordest, ceased its activities on Nov. 22. A liquidator has been appointed to settle debts amounting to around €1.5 million with the company's creditors. Located in Auronzo di Cadore, Vecellio employs 30 ...
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Managers Take Over Gerber Coburn
Gerber Scientific is selling Gerber Coburn, its subsidiary specializing in ophthalmic lens processing equipment and consumables, and the smallest one of its three business units. The company making the purchase, Coburn Technologies, is newly formed and its primary investor is Edward Jepsen, a former board member of Gerber Scientific. Alex ...
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Coopervision Continues To Gain Market Share
CooperVision claims it grew twice as fast as the global soft contact lens market in the last quarter of its financial year, ended last Oct. 31, and for the previous three quarters. It gained market share everywhere except in the Asia-Pacific region, but that should end following its acquisition of ...
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European Court Ruling On Internet Sales Pleases Euromcontact, Sort Of
The European Court of Justice ruled on Dec. 2 that the sale of contact lenses over the internet cannot be prohibited in the European Union, but nonetheless acknowledged the need for some kind of regulations to protect the consumer. The case, which we have already reported on last July, ...
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New Directors From The World Of Finance At Gruppo Randazzo
The Sicilian chain of 180 optical retail stores has enlarged its board of directors from three to five members to accommodate two representatives of a private equity fund, BS Investimenti SGR. However, company officials point out that the investment company has not acquired any shares in Gruppo Randazzo, which remains ...
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U.S. Optical Industry Feels The Pinch From The Economy
U.S. consumption trends in the ophthalmic sector are faltering behind the general retail trends, according to the newest VisionWatch Economic Survey out by The Vision Council. While the overall retail sector is increasing significantly compared with 2009, consumer spending in the optical realm it is just barely growing along with ...
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Indo Sheds Its Eyewear, Its Stores, And Lays Off One-third Of Its Staff
Indo Internacional has decided to dismiss 294 employees out of its total staff of nearly 1,000 people as part of a major reorganization that will involve its disengagement from the retail sector and from the production and sale of sunglasses and prescription frames. The Spanish company has also decided ...
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Zeiss Group Makes A Quantum Leap, But Not In Vision
The revenues of Carl Zeiss Vision increased by only 0.2 percent to €881 million in the financial year ended last Sept. 30. The Carl Zeiss group, which is taking full ownership of CZV, saw its overall sales jump by 42 percent to $2.98 billion, thanks mainly to a 207 percent ...
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Spain's Masvision Grows Strongly
The acquisition of 10 Novolent stores from the bankrupt Indo group is part of a program intended to raise the share of the Spanish optical retail market held by MasVision Grupo Optico from 3 percent to 9 percent by 2015. The group, which is part of the international optical retail ...
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Marcolin Shareholders Strike New Pact
Marcolin has rearranged and renewed for three years a pact, which was originally formed on Dec 14. 2007, giving preferential rights and powers to some of its shareholders over 50.2 percent of the company's equity. The shareholders participating in the new syndicate include members of the founding Marcolin family and ...
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Marcolin Sees 2010 As Record Year
Marcolin expects 2010 to be a record year in terms of both sales and profits and says that 2011 looks very promising, too. The comments come after the group booked an 18.6 percent increase in sales for the first nine months of the year to €155.3 million. The performance in ...
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Orange 21 Gets More Money From Its Chairman's Company
The North American subsidiary of Orange 21 entered into a $1.0 million promissory note with one of the company's shareholders, Costa Brava Partnership III, as of Nov. 1. The promissory note is an enlargement of the $3.0 million and $1.0 million promissory notes entered into with Costa Brava in ...
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Okia Insists That Its Hd Acetate Technology Is Patented
Okia, a company based in Hong Kong that is seeking to acquire a foothold in Western markets with its own brand of innovative eyewear, claims that it has patented HD acetate technology to use to create patterns and embellishments on acetate sheets. It says its own proprietary technology «allows the ...
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Mazzucchelli: Hd Acetate Cannot Be Patented
The world's leading producer of cellulose acetate sheets for eyewear frames, Mazzucchelli, has published a statement pointing out that it has been using HD technology «that produces excellent chromatic/aesthetic effects and high-definition silk screen prints» since the 1970s, and that this technology «is based on highly developed and perfected know-how.» ...
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Vision Group Ponders Sale After Big Loss
Vision Group Holdings of Australia saw a 5 percent drop in revenues to 107.7 million Australian dollars (€77.8m-$106.7m) in the 2009-10 fiscal year ended last June 30, as some optical retail members closed up their practices. Excluding those effects, sales would have dropped by 1 percent. The company had ...
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The New Alliance Optics Group Is Expanding Gradually Around The World
Described as the first truly global buying and cooperation group, the Alliance Optics Group is winning over more and more retailers and suppliers in various countries with its unique approach. After two years in operation, it has about 150 retail members in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Portugal, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam ...
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Pro Fit Optix Helps Retailers To Make The Best Buys
Pro Fit Optix, the U.S. company run by Ruedi Suter and Alan Yuster, has launched a new proprietary supply system designed as a sort of automatic auction mechanism that can help any retail groups anywhere to choose the best possible sources of lenses, frames or finished spectacles anywhere in the ...
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Big Boom For Osi And The Luxury Eyewear Market
New collections of luxury eyewear like those discussed in the next two articles are coming into the market at a time where this category is apparently booming now that the economic crisis of the past two years seems to be over. Optical Shop International, which claims to be the world's ...
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Safilo Boosts Sales And Profitability, Wants To Work More Closely With Hal
Enjoying a remarkable turnaround after being on the brink of bankruptcy last year, Safilo bolstered sales and profitability in the third quarter. Growth was especially strong in China. The new powerhouse is becoming Safilo's largest market in Asia, overtaking Japan, and currently represents about 2.5 percent of its sales. ...
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Zanotti Fragonara, The Count Looks To The Luxury Market
With the major eyewear producers having their priorities elsewhere, the search for niche markets is one of the new targets for Europe's new breed of entrepreneurs. Focusing on a peculiar identity and on national or local traditions has proved successful with a number of house brands of small and medium-sized ...
