All Article articles – Page 148
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Pro Fit Distributes Optixx And Rodenstock Lenses In The U.S.
Pro Fit Optix of Florida has signed a deal to distribute Optixx' lenses in the U.S., starting with its Identity and Upgrade lenses. Identity comes in three progressive designs: standard, outdoor and office, and recently added a degressive version for indoors called Office +. Upgrade is an aspheric individual single-vision ...
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Visibilia May Drop Jeckerson
Visibilia may not renew its licensing agreement for Jeckerson, the Italian apparel brand owned by Fashion Time, a group that specializes in sports clothing and accessories with what it calls a total sport-chic look. The agreement expires in September 2011, so the decision is not imminent, but may be ended ...
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Equity Funds Hesitate To Recapitalize Safilo
Safilo has put an end to its search for a financial partner to recapitalize the ailing company after Bain Capital and other private equity funds involved in a ?beauty contest? pulled out. After the summer break, the company will resume talks with the banks to restructure and reschedule its debt, ...
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Good Increases Seen At Fgx
The American company FGX International looks well-poised for a potential merger with Safilo, judging from its newly released financial results. The company reported a 12 percent increase in turnover to $75.1 million for the second quarter ended July 4. Net income from continuing operations rose by 54 percent to $6.1 ...
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Stronger Yen Gives Weaker Results At Hoya
The vision care sector of Hoya Corporation reports a 17.1 percent drop in sales to ¥25,628 million (€187.1m-$269.5m) for the first quarter ended June 30. This is the division that makes ophthalmic lenses and frames; the health care division, which produces contact and intraocular lenses and accessories, saw sales rise ...
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A Slightly Smaller Silmo In September
The Paris show will occupy only three halls instead of four at the earlier than usual edition scheduled for Sept. 17-20, following the pull-out of some important exhibitors and the decision by some others to reduce the surface of their stands. It could not be determined whether their motivations were ...
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Vidivici Is To Be Auctioned Off July 7
A court in Bologna has scheduled the auction of Vidivici's assets for July 7. The assets of the bankrupt Italian company was temporarily leased out in November 2008 to Horizon Vertical, but just one month later this company decided to pull out, and terminated the contract unilaterally, triggering the start ...
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Luxottica Moves Into Latin America
Luxottica Group has an agreement in principle to buy a 40 percent interest in Multiopticas Internacional, giving it entrance into the optical retailing market in South America. The chain has 393 eyewear stores under the names GMO, Econoptics and SunPlanet in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Until now, Luxottica has ...
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Eyewear Suffers Only Slightly From The Bad Economy
While sales of sunglasses have certainly been affected by the international economic slump, like other fashion items, the need for vision correction seems to have kept sales of ophthalmic lenses and contact lenses relatively high in several markets. In the area of vision correction, a big rebound is expected ...
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Currency Effects Bring Down Coopervision
The regained strength of the U.S. dollar had an adverse effect on the sales and the gross margins of CooperVision in the second quarter ended April 30. Partly because of new production efficiencies, CVI's operating margins nevertheless rose to 16 percent, up from 12 percent in the same period a ...
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British Companies React To The Weaker Pound And The Poor Economy
British optical groups admit that they are getting reduced margins as a result of the lower value of the pound sterling. The resulting increased costs from overseas are not being passed on to British consumers because their disposable income is being squeezed and challenged by the weak economic situation ...
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Brulimar Faring Well In Troubled Times
Brulimar made a turnover of £6.2 million (€7.3m-$10.1m) in 2008, up by nearly 40 percent, and the British company expects to post an increase in sales of around 10 percent in 2009. Business this year is being boosted by Brulimar's five-year pan-European license with Lee Cooper to make and distribute ...
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Italian Fashion Sector Calls On European Parliament
Italian employers' associations and trade unions representing the Italian textile, clothing, tanning, leather, footwear and eyewear sectors called on the newly elected European Parliament to form a bipartisan working group to defend their industries. Together they have an annual turnover of about €70 billion, of which €38 billion is exported, ...
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Safilo Is Closer To Refinancing Deal, But Not There Yet
The Tabacchi family, which owns nearly 40 percent of Safilo through the holding company Only 3T, is a step closer to a deal with the private equity Bain Capital to recapitalize the eyewear company after this potential investor modified its offer, which had been initially rejected. However, the ...
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Italian Opticians See Sales Decling
Fashion Magazine has surveyed the ways in which the economic crisis has been affecting Italian opticians. Half of the Italian opticians polled by this magazine before the Mido show of last March expected to see a dip in they sales in 2009 and 72 percent intended to reduce their orders ...
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Optotrades Goes Into Liquidation
Optotrades, the Italian buying group that was previously operating also in Spain, has filed for voluntary liquidation, after being cut off from its two major suppliers and the loss of many retail clients. In 2007 the group's centralized invoicing amounted to €22 million, representing about half of the retail members' ...
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Saf Ottica Puts Its Money Into Nickel-titanium
Saf Ottica is a good example of a small company in Italy's Cadore district that has found a recession-proof strategy. With annual sales of €2 million, Saf is investing in technology and research, rather than advertising and promotion, with the result that it can be sure of generating its €2 ...
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Some Management Shifts At Luxottica
Anthonie Klijn has left as Luxottica's country manager for Germany and Austria to run the company's operations in South Africa. He has been replaced by Christian Grund, who ran Oakley's former German subsidiary. In France, Bernard Galan, an experienced executive, has been appointed as the new general ...
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Mazzucchelli Has A New Office In New York
Mazzucchelli 1849 has set up an eyewear development office in New York, and the initiative has turned out to be quite useful so far. Located in the trendy SoHo district of Manhattan, the showroom displays the complete range of products of the three component suppliers that belong to the Italian ...
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Essilor's Turnover Grows By 10.3% For The Quarter
Essilor International reported consolidated revenues of €840.4 million for the three months ended March 31, representing increases of 10.3 percent in euros and 5.4 percent in local currencies. Excluding acquisitions, sales were down by 1 percent on a comparable basis, and the company credited this decline mainly to its instruments ...
