All Article articles – Page 147
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Safilo Resumes Its Search For A Partner, Readies Disposals
After having said in August that it had put an end to a search for a financial partner due to the absence of offers, Safilo has recovered its senses and mandated its chief executive Roberto Vedovotto to find a financial or industrial partner ready to recapitalize the ailing company. Safilo ...
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Hal Holding Is Down Slightly For Half
Pearle Europe and the other optical retail companies that belong to HAL Holding raised their combined revenues for the first half of 2009 by 3.3 percent to €1,002 million, €46 million of it from acquisitions. An additional boost came from new stores. However, currency effects hurt the top line by ...
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Fielmann Sees Margins Whittle Down
Fielmann reported a 2.3 percent increase in consolidated sales to €238.2 million for the second quarter ended June 30, as compared to the same quarter a year ago. Germany's largest optical retailer had reported a 3.2 percent increase for the first quarter, but company officials noted that, because of the ...
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Essilor Elevates Sagnieres In Reporting A Remarkable First Half
Essilor International will split the roles of chairman and chief executive as of next Jan. 1, a decision made at its board's meeting on Aug. 26. The role of CEO will go to Hubert Sagnières, who has been acting as the company's chief operating officer for the past year, while ...
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Sunglass Sector In Trouble, Major Players Focus On Prescription Eyewear
During one of the round tables organized at the Vision Business Forum held in Rome on Sept. 6 and 7, Cirillo Marcolin, vice chairman of Anfao and also of Marcolin, announced that the major Italian eyewear firms are starting to move their strategic focus from sun eyewear to prescription glasses. ...
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Specsavers Sees Growth Worldwide
Specsavers has reported a 17.6 percent increase in its annual turnover for its financial year ended Feb. 28. However, in its annual report, published at the end of July, the group said that its total turnover for 2008-09 was up by 15.7 percent to £1.2 billion (€1.4bn-$2.0bn). The annual report ...
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Shamir Improves Margins
Revenues at Shamir Optical Industry decreased by 5.1 percent to $35.2 million for the second quarter ended June 30, largely because of currency effects. The gross profit margin fell by 0.5 percentage points to 53.8 percent. However, net income rose by 29.1 percent to $3.9 million. Operating income ...
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New Middle East Show In Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi is going to host a new trade show named Optical Middle East; the first edition is taking place next Oct. 26-28 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center and is being organized by Mecom Forum, described as the largest trade show organizer in the Middle East. Mecom Forum has ...
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Safilo Posts A Big Net Loss, Sales Decline In All Segments
Safilo continues to suffer from a difficult business environment, with sales down by 11.8 percent year-on-year to €274.2 million in the second quarter. At constant currency rates, the drop reached 15.7 percent. By product, sunglass revenues fell by 13.5 percent to €158.4 million, prescription frames were down by 7.2 ...
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Area Establishes A New Company For Coco Song
Corrado Moro, former general manager of this Italian eyewear producer, has set up a new company called Tesmo International together with an international partner to develop the Coco Song brand on the eyewear market, but also to take it into the jewelry and fashion accessory sectors. Moro will be chief ...
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Specsavers Is Growing Fast In Australia And New Zealand
Specsavers is doing well Down Under. According to the Australian magazine Insight, the British company recently reported that it has already reached a 16.4 percent share of the Australian market on an annualized basis, and the whole group has grown by 325 percent since its launch in February 2008. Specsavers ...
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Luxottica Sharply Improves Its Balance Sheet
In an Italian remake of Charles Dickens' «Tale of Two Cities,» Luxottica is proving itself a safe haven in troubled times while its peer and rival Safilo plunges further into difficulty and uncertainty. Despite a decline in profitability, Luxottica generated an impressive free cash flow of €260 million in ...
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Gerber Scientific Has Big Drop In Sales For Quarter, Year
The Gerber Coburn ophthalmic lens processing unit of Gerber Scientific saw a 23.5 percent drop in revenues to $14.0 million for the fourth quarter ended April 30, with operating income down by 53.8 percent to $600,000. For the full year, turnover decreased by 19.0 percent to $57.5 million. Net income ...
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Bleak Situation For British Independents
A survey has indicated that 149 independent opticians' practices in the U.S. closed down during the past year and that more are expected to follow suit. Indeed, the estate agency side of Myers La Roche is expecting to sell 120 practices this year, compared with between 40 and 50 in ...
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Mido's New Business Forum In Rome Will Run For Two Days
Mido has scaled down its new mini eyewear show at the end of the summer in Rome. The show was supposed to run for three days from September 4 to 6 at the Rome fairgrounds, but the plan has been shelved. Instead, there will be a smaller event that will ...
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J&J And Ciba Vision Are Hurt By Foreign Currencies
Johnson & Johnson Vision Care's global sales fell by 1.4 percent to $630 million in dollars during the second quarter, but they would have grown by 1.9 percent if currency exchange rates had remained the same. Sales outside the U.S. fell by 3.2 percent in the quarter to $399 ...
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A.T. Cross' Optical Division Falls, But Not As Much As The Company
A.T. Cross Company reported sales in its optical division down by 4.4 percent to $16.5 million for the second quarter ended July 4. This includes revenues from its eyewear brands, Native Eyewear and Costa Del Mar. For the first six months of the year turnover rose by 5.8 percent to ...
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Essilor Posts Slighly Lower Comparable Sales
Replacing the retired Philippe Alfroid in the company's quarterly conference call with financial analysts for the first time, the company's new deputy chief executive, Hubert Sagnières, predicted that Essilor will be able to report a stable operating margin for the first half of 2009 at the end of this month, ...
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Indo Refinances, Strikes A Deal With Hoya
Indo Internacional has signed a wide-ranging strategic alliance with Hoya Vision Care in the areas of technology transfers and sourcing, opening the way for some possible cooperation in research and development as well as in the penetration of some foreign markets. The agreement will remain in effect until 2015, with ...
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Several Deals Expand Essilor's Reach
Essilor further pursued its external growth strategy through a number of recent transactions in Europe, North America and the Middle East, and many others are in the pipeline. Essilor has acquired all outstanding shares in De Ceunynck, a major player in the Belgian market where the company is BBGR's ...
