All Article articles – Page 149
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Optic 2000 Privileges Profit Over Sales
Optic 2000 says it wants to work with fewer suppliers on a more limited number of SKUs, in order to improve the inventory turns of its retail members. Among its numerous other services, the French buying group is also setting up an original e-learning platform that allows it to conduct ...
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Orange 21 Gets Smaller Nasdaq Listing
Orange 21 says it has received approval of its request to transfer its listing to the Nasdaq Capital Market, with effect from May 8. The parent company of Spy Optic had made the request after receiving a notice from Nasdaq last April 21 that it no longer met the requirements ...
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Soft Contact Lenses Grow By 7.7% In Europe
Euromcontact, the European association that groups major manufacturers of contact lenses and related products, has found that the total value of contact lens market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa rose by 7.7 percent last year to €1.182 billion. Among the 21 markets studied, only South Africa ...
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Change Of Ownership For Alain Mikli
As indicated in the last issue of EWI, an equity fund has acquired a major share in the French eyewear design company alongside Dominique Alba, the former general manager and part owner of Logo. It's a London-based investment fund, Neo Capital, that has been involved until now in food, high ...
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Alcon's Eye Care Division Drops More Than Overall Sales
Alcon saw its overall sales for the first quarter ended March 31 decrease by 2.8 percent to $1,493.3 million, though this was a climb of 4.8 percent in constant currencies. Its consumer eye care division fell by 7.9 percent to $193.5 million, or an 8.0 percent drop in comparable currencies. ...
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Vision Service, Stores Are Revamped Under The Visionottica Banner
Italy's largest buying group ? Vision Service, which has a total of 853 stores ? has begun a major €2 million renovation job to make the group's outlets more attractive to the consumer. Along with improvements in design, materials, IT systems and promotional material, the heart of the operation is ...
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Bushnell Buys The Cebe Brand
Marcolin has agreed to sell its Cébé brand to Bushnell Outdoor Products, complementing its Bollé and Serengeti lines of eyewear. Bushnell says the acquisition will allow the American company to differentiate its product lines and its distribution channels with a brand that is well known in the areas of snow ...
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Hal Holding Breaks Down Figures For Pearle Europe, Grandvision
HAL Holding has already reported that its optical retail sales increased by 7.3 percent to €1,977 million in 2008 (see last issue), but now it has specified its figures for its Pearle Europe and GrandVision businesses. Pearle Europe recorded a 6.2 percent increase in revenues to €1,102 million on ...
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Sales Up At Fgx, But Charges Bring Earnings Down
FGX International had a 3 percent climb in sales in the first quarter to $61.1 million, but reported a loss of $0.6 million, compared with income of $2.2 million for the same period last year. This included a $1.8 million pre-tax impairment charge related to the company's coming exit from ...
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The Strong Dollar Brings Novartis Down
The consumer health division of Novartis, which includes CIBA Vision, had a drop in revenues of 11 percent for the first quarter to $1,303 million. In local currencies this was actually an increase of 1 percent. CIBA Vision improved on the momentum of new contact lens products, the company said. ...
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Cecop Wins Over British Opticians
The international Spanish-based buying group, which entered the British market at the beginning of 2008, now has nearly 60 associated retailers in the country, and it is following up on many inquiries received by visitors at last month's Optrafair show in Birmingham, where it had its own stand. Prospective ...
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Opal Buys Licenses From Simop
Opal becomes a bigger player in the French market for children's eyewear ? perhaps even the biggest one in Europe ? through its acquisition of the four children's and teenager's licenses of Simop, another company based in Lyon. The brands are Catimini, Daniel Hechter, Oxbow and Tartine & Chocolat. ...
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Hoya Cuts Costs And Margins Go Up
Hoya is transferring some of its European lens production to its super-laboratory in Thailand. As part of this move, the company has eliminated about 10 percent of its 400-odd jobs in its vision care operations in the U.K. and placed one-fourth of its staff in Germany, where its facilities are ...
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Elite Goes Under, Intersol Is Salvaged
Elite, the Italian eyewear manufacturer established in 1998 to produce private labels for chains such as Randazzo, has gone into administration following a hearing in the court of the city of Treviso. For the company's 35 employees the decision came as a relief, as they will now be made officially ...
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New General Manager For Pearle Europe
Gert van de Weerdhof has been promoted to be the new chief executive of Pearle Europe, with effect from May 1. The 43-year-old Dutchman worked at Proctor & Gamble and at Pepsico before joining Pearle in 2004, recently acting as one of its vice presidents. He has taken the ...
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Mr. Lens Expands Internationally
Mr. Lens, an interesting Swiss virtual shop for contact lenses and solutions, has set up a similar e-commerce operation for the German market, called www.mrlens.de, and is planning to move into France with its whole range of products and services in about two months' time. It already entered the Austrian ...
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Marcolin's Sales And Profits Fall
Marcolin closed the first quarter with a 6.5 percent drop in sales to €52.3 million. The weaker top line outside Italy affected operating profits, which were also hit by the company's decision to apply a more aggressive commercial policy in terms of discounts and to continue investing. At constant ...
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Italia Independent, Fom High Fashion Stores To Opticians
Italia Independent was established in 2007 with the aim of making a name in the luxury market. Its first success was a very exclusive limited edition of carbon sunglasses, retailing at €1,000 a pair in a few high-end fashion stores. The following year distribution was extended to optical outlets with ...
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Fielmann Gains More Market Share
Fielmann has been performing better than its peers so far this year, reporting increases for the first quarter in its external sales, up by 3.5 percent to €267.9 million, and in consolidated revenues, up by 3.7 percent to €226.4 million. The German leading optical retail chain also raised ...
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Safilo Takes Time To Find A Partner
Safilo's search for a partner to pull it out of a financial rut is expected to drag on until the beginning of the summer, but its first-quarter results showed that the dark storm cloud hovering over Safilo has some silver linings as the company improves efficiencies. ...
