All Article articles – Page 143
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A Couple Of New Internet Platforms Aim To Generate Store Traffic
A total of 400 opticians from all over France have already signed up as «privileged partners» of Optic-Néo, in preparation for the forthcoming launch of its website, easy-verres.com («easy lenses»), one the first ones that don't compete with the traditional optical retail trade. The registration of other partner stores ...
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Vision Care Lagged Behind J&J's Overall Growth
Johnson & Johnson reports that its vision care division had a 2.7 percent increase in sales for the fourth quarter 2009 to $618 million. At constant currencies, it was a growth of 5.3 percent. Sales outside the U.S. grew by 7.2 percent to $430 million, for a 7.9 percent increase ...
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Borsalino Eyewear Comes To The Market
Borsalino, renowned worldwide for its famous Borsalino hats, has signed a licensing agreement with Brands O.I., a new Italian company established to produce luxury eyewear with prestigious brand names. Brands O.I. will manufacture and distribute Borsalino sun and prescription frames worldwide, with the contract running to the end of December ...
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Eqt May Not Participate In Carl Zeiss Vision's Refinancing
Carl Zeiss Vision is talking to its lenders about a financial reorganization after breaching a loan covenant based on its financial results for the 2008-09 fiscal year, ended last Sept. 30. EQT, the Swedish-controlled equity investment firm, and the Carl Zeiss AG group, which have owned Carl Zeiss Vision in ...
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Safilo Is Close To Completing Its Recapitalization
Safilo is scheduled to complete a €250 million rights issue today as part of a rescue plan involving the Dutch conglomerate Hal Holding. The capital increase is the tail end of a complex operation that started in October after Hal signed a binding agreement to become Safilo's largest shareholder and ...
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Ola Merges Into The Vision Council
The Vision Council of the U.S. is merging with the Optical Laboratories Association, the American association of ophthalmic laboratories. One result of the merger will be that OLA will start having its annual convention alongside the International Vision Expo West fair in Las Vegas, instead of holding its ...
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Hoya Sees Some Problems In Europe, Which Gets A New Manager
Hans Werquin, a 49-year-old manager who has been running its operations in France and Belgium, has been named chief executive of Hoya Vision Care Europe, starting April 1. He will also keep his current positions in Belgium and France, but France Van de Perck (Belgium) and Patrice Pineau (France) will ...
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Pixeloptics Introduces Its High-tech Lenses In Europe
A seasoned industry executive, Peter Zieman, has put together a network of top-class distributors in key European countries for PixelOptics, leading to significant sales of its enhanced multi-focal lenses in composite materials, called atLast!, in this part of the world since last September. The same sales network is gearing up ...
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Novartis Outperforms The Market
The Swiss group has reported some nice figures for its 2009 financial year, too, performing better than some other pharmaceutical and contact lens companies. Its total revenues rose by 7 percent to $44.3 million and net income increased by 4 percent to $8.5 billion. Net profit related to core activities ...
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Luxottica Is Upbeat About 2010
Luxottica is entering the new year with confidence after booking strongly improved sales in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company said that the last two months of 2009 were particularly positive and it expects a «return to normal» in terms of sales growth, higher profitability and debt reduction this ...
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Alcon's Minority Shareholders Want More To Sell To Novartis
Novartis has agreed to buy Nestle's remaining shares in Alcon ? a 52 percent stake ? for $180 per share, or $28.1 billion. It also has proposed to acquire the remaining 23 percent of shares that it does not already own in exchange for shares, with the intention of merging ...
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Mondottica Appoints Industry Veterans In Europe And The U.S.
Mondottica, an international eyewear company based in Hong Kong that licenses brand names such as Lulu Guinness, Pepe Jeans and Ted Baker, has conducted an equity increase that has opened the way for a new minority investor, Bernard Nuesser, who is taking up the new position of chief executive. Based ...
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Safilo Sells Stores To Hal, Reaches Debt Deal With Banks
As expected, Safilo has sold some of its non-core retail activities to Hal Holding for €13.7 million and reached an agreement with its creditor banks to reschedule for six months debt payments due at the end of 2009. Safilo has the right to repurchase the activities at a similar conditions ...
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German Manufacturers Enjoy Domestic Business, But Record Weak Exports
At the Opti show in Munich, Josef May, managing director of Silhouette Germany and head of the national manufacturers' association, Spectaris, presented satisfactory figures for 2009. Overall, German eyewear producers suffered a small decline in sales of about 2 percent to €3.69 billion last year, but May expects increases of ...
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Essilor Continues To Gobble Up Labs And Lens Makers
In its global expansion bid, Essilor International has signed 10 acquisition or partnership agreements since last October. In Europe, Essilor's subsidiary Novisia, exclusive distributor of Nikon for ophthalmic lenses in continental Europe, has bought a majority stake in Mont-Royal, a French lens distributor with a sophisticated laboratory in the Lorraine ...
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Sover Distributes Viva's Gant Line In Italy
Gant eyewear by Viva International will be distributed in Italy by Sover, an Italian firm based in Belluno that produces and distributes various company-owned labels and licensed brands on the domestic and international markets, including Alviero Martini and Mariella Burani. Sover expects to win over at least 750 new clients ...
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Zeiss Vision Sees Slight Drop In Sales
The fiscal year 2008-09 ended last September with a 3 percent drop in sales at Carl Zeiss Vision, with a final tally of €879 million, but profits and the cash position remained positive, according to company officials. In fact, the company had 9.2 percent fewer employees with a total of ...
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Small Producers Want ?Made In Italy' Law To Be Extended To Eyewear
An association of 260 small manufacturing companies based in northeast Italy have come out in support of a draft bill on origin labeling being discussed in the Italian Parliament that would make it mandatory to use the «Made in Italy» label on certain products manufactured in the country. The bill ...
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Rodenstock Introduces New Eyewear Lines
Rodenstock confirms that it has taken over the licenses for Alfred Dunhill and Mercedes-Benz eyewear from Allison, which decided not to renew them last year, claiming that they were not generating enough turnover. The respective lines will be presented by Rodenstock at the Mido show in Milan in March. ...
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Visibilia Goes Into Liquidation
Visibilia SpA has gone into liquidation and the judge in charge of the proceedings has begun by guaranteeing that the company's 49 employees, some of whom have has been benefitting from a state protection system since July, will receive their severance pay. The employees not receiving state assistance were paid ...
