All Article articles – Page 163
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Sale Of 1-800 Contacts Closes, With A Profit
Stockholders of 1-800 Contacts met on Sept. 6 and approved a proposal to merge with Fenway Partners, a New York-based private equity group, taking the American contact lens company private. Shareholders on record as of Aug. 6 were entitled to vote on the proposal. The acquisition of 1-800 Contacts was ...
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Orange 21 Expands Sales As Well As Losses
Orange 21, parent company of Spy Optics, confirmed a few weeks ago reports that it is negotiating the acquisition of an American chain of 40 young fashion stores, called No Fear, which sell or may sell Spy eyewear as an accessory. Mark Simo, chairman and chief executive of Orange 21, ...
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Hal's Stores Score 6.3% Better On A Comparable Basis
The sales of the optical retail companies controlled by HAL Holding rose to €917 million in the first half of this year, compared with €824 million for the same period of 2006, with same-store sales up by 6.3 percent. They generated an operating profit (EBIT) of €140 million for the ...
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Alain Afflelou Earns Less
Alain Afflelou had net profit of €22.9 million for its continuing operations in the 2007 financial year, ended Apr. 30, down 25.2 percent from the previous year. The gross profit rose by 15.6 percent for the year, largely thanks to an increase in franchising fees. Operating income before amortization and ...
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Improving B&L Agrees To Warburg Pincus' Buyout
The board of directors of Bausch & Lomb (B&L), which has reported improved results for the 2nd quarter ended June 30, has unanimously approved proposals for the company's takeover by affiliates of Warburg Pincus for about $4.5 billion, including assumption of $830 million in debt. B&L's shareholders are set to ...
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Foster Grant Turns Around Ahead Of Ipo
FosterGrant's parent company, FGX International Holdings, which filed for an initial public offering on July 27, reported a net profit of $3,417,000 for the first six months of its financial year ended on June 30. This compared to a loss of $4,269,000 in the same period last year. Total sales ...
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Fielmann Wants To Play A Bigger Role In Hearing Aids
Germany's biggest optical retailer is looking for the acquisition of hearing aid stores and for the establishment of hearing aid counters in its larger stores, in order to raise its revenues in this segment from less than €10 million to anywhere from €50 to €150 million in the foreseeable future. ...
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Big Management Changes At Gerber Coburn
Recent shifts in Gerber Coburn, a subsidiary of Gerber Scientific, have seen the appointment of a new company president and of a new European sales manager. Stephen Lovass will take on the role of president at Gerber Coburn, where he has served for over five years, most recently as president ...
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Marcolin Closes First Half In The Red Due To Cebe
The group's total revenues grew by 25.7 percent to €104.0 million in the first half ended June 30, driven by the licensed Tom Ford, Montblanc and Roberto Cavalli eyewear lines, in spite of a 20.2 percent decrease in the 2nd quarter to €50.3 million. At constant currency rates the first-half ...
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Otticaspesi Chain Expands
The Italian optical retail chain has inaugurated its 5th sales outlet in the Milan region. It is located inside Milan's Malpensa Airport and is aimed more specifically at the airport staff than at passengers. The new store is the chain's first outlet almost exclusively devoted to vision, a new trend ...
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Guildinvest Experiments With A New Low-cost Store Concept
Guildinvest, France's largest optical retail group, launched last month Lun's Eyewear, an all-new low-cost concept for optical stores. It uses a centralized model inspired by retail structures in the apparel trade, where opticians will own the store but not the inventory. All the styles are private label. Lun's, the ...
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Coopervision Continues To Edge Into Important Single-use Market
In a conference call about the financial results for its 3rd quarter ended July 31, Cooper Companies told investors that its CooperVision (CVI) subsidiary was making progress ? albeit late ? in the growing daily disposable lens market. Noting that it is the only one to offer both a premium ...
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Sover Takes Over The Distribution In Germany, France And Spain
Sover closed its 2006-07 financial year on June 30 with sales of €26.5 million, up 30 percent over the previous year, and gross operating profit before amortization and depreciation (EBITDA) of €4 million. Exports grew by 29 percent, and domestic sales by 34 percent. Much of the turnover comes ...
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French Luxury Store Duplicates Itself In Second Life
Les Plus Belles Lunettes du Monde, a French name that stands for ?The World's Most Beautiful Spectacles,? is the banner on a very classy optical retail store that opened in downtown Paris 18 months ago, next to Oakley's flagship store in the French capital. For six months starting last Sept. ...
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Essilor Reaches Record Margins
The operating margin (EBIT) of Essilor International reached an all-time high of 18.1 percent for the first half of 2007, compared with a margin of 17.8 percent in the year-ago period, and the management predicts that it will remain above 18 percent for the balance of this year. Some analysts ...
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L'amy Gets European License For Levi's
Levi Strauss has selected Lunettes Grasset Associés., a subsidiary of the French L'Amy group, as the European eyewear licensee for this leading American brand of jeans. A first line of about 30 styles of Levi's sunglasses and frames in acetate, titanium and other metals will be presented at the SILMO ...
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Growth Of 8.7% For Essilor In Quarter
Essilor booked a nice 8.7 percent sales increase on a comparable basis for the 2nd quarter ended June 30, pushing up to 8.4 percent the growth rate for the first half of this year. In terms of euros and including acquisitions, sales increased by 8.3 percent to €1,475.6 million for ...
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Alcon Acquires German Laser Firm
The Swiss group has agreed to take over WaveLight, a German laser company that has already supplied more than 800 units of its Allegretto laser system for refractive eye surgery. The purchase price is reported to be €66 million. Alcon says the Allegretto system will make a great combination ...
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Amo Drops Its Bid For B&L, While Announcing Big Losses
Advanced Medical Optics yesterday withdrew its offer to acquire Bausch & Lomb in a merger deal, charging its board of directors of imposing ?unrealistic hurdles,? but left the door open for negotiations in the future. B&L had extended until last Friday a deadline for AMO to provide evidence that its ...
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Big Merger In The Works In The Spanish Retail Sector
Discussions are taking place about the possible merger of three Spanish-based optical retailing groups - +Vision, Sun Planet and MultiOpticas Internacional - forming a new international conglomerate with more than 700 company-owned and affiliated stores in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. According to local press reports, an agreement can ...
