All Article articles – Page 18
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ArticleAfflelou sales up 5 percent in Q3
The Afflelou Group has reported a 5.5 percent year-on-year increase in network sales to €229.4 million for the third quarter of its current fiscal year, ended April 30, in line with its growth pace in the previous quarter. For the first nine months of the financial year, sales were up ...
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ArticleBacked by new investor, Vision Group aims for more acquisitions
London-based alternative asset manager ICG has agreed to purchase a 49.4 percent stake in the leading Italian eyewear retailer Vision Group as part of a management buyout, acquiring the roughly 46 percent stake held by former private equity group backer Arcadia along with shares from other unnamed investors. ICG will ...
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ArticleKirk & Kirk turns to crowfunding for marketing budget boost
Kirk & Kirk is about to complete a crowdfunding campaign for £150,000 (€177,000) by selling approximately 7 percent of company shares on Crowdcube, a crowdfunding platform focusing on European start-ups. Jason Kirk, CEO, and Karen Kirk, Creative Director, each hold 36 percent of the family business. At the date of ...
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ArticleGoogle takes a seat at AR Alliance’s board, alongside Meta, Essilux and others
The AR Alliance, an international body regrouping companies and organizations in the augmented reality hardware sector, has announced that Google has become a new founding member of the association, taking a seat at its board of directors. The announcement seems to give more substance to speculations that the high-tech giant ...
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ArticleEssilor, MicroOLED developing AR, with EU help
A consortium led by Essilor International has obtained about €6.7 million from an EU funding scheme (Horizon Research and Innovation Actions) for a project called POPULAR, scheduled to run from Jan. 1, 2024, to Dec. 31, 2026. The name stands for Prescription Optics Providing a Universal Lens for Augmented Reality, ...
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ArticleMost top industry players maintained momentum last year, but frames companies slowed down
We are publishing here for the second time an industry-wide table showing the year-on-year revenue and profitability performance of most large companies in the eyewear sector in their last fiscal year. For most of them, the fiscal year corresponds to the 2023 calendar year. Exceptions include Japanese-based companies (fiscal year ...
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ArticleIncreased production capacity supports Menicon’s sales growth, weighs on profitability
Menicon has reported a 5.1 percent year-on-year increase in annual revenue to 106.9 billion Japanese yen (€633m) for its vision care division in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. The segment accounts for over 90 percent of total group revenue. Including the healthcare and life care unit, whose sales ...
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ArticleFielmann more than doubles US retail footprint with new acquisition
Fielmann Group has announced that it has agreed to acquire 100 percent equity ownership of Shopko Optical, a US optical retail chain based in Wisconsin, through Fielmann USA, its subsidiary in the country. The transaction, for which the amount was not disclosed, is expected to become effective in the third ...
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ArticleFrench company offers quick 3D-printed substitute frames
Sometimes it’s not enough to twist the pliers or turn the screwdriver. Sometimes a frame will have a clean break and an optician must send them in for repairs. But what’s the customer to do in the meantime? OOmade – a start-up in Montpellier, France, with support from BPI France ...
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ArticleSpanish optical market up by 6.0 percent in 2023
The Spanish optical market value grew by 6.0 percent year-on-year in 2023 according to the “Libro Blanco de la Visión”, the annual report by FEDAO, the national federation of optical associations. Accelerating slightly from the previous year (+4.4 percent versus 2021), the Spanish market ended 2023 with a value of ...
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ArticleJ.F. REY new owners look to balance brand DNA and changes while navigating supply chain issues
Almost three years after the acquisition of J.F. REY by a Franco-German trio of investors including Dan Levi and Ralf Kmoch of Visibilia, and Walter Pirinoli of Visioptis, we sat down with the French executive to discuss the evolutions and future strategic orientations of the Marseille-based designer eyewear brand. “While ...
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ArticleMitsui expects return to growth for vision care unit sales in FY 2024
Annual sales of Mitsui Chemicals’ Life & Healthcare Solutions unit, which includes the group’s vision care materials, nonwovens and agrochemicals businesses, increased by 13.5 percent year-on-year to 271.7 billion Japanese yen (€1.6bn) for fiscal 2023, ended on March 31. The division reported an operating margin of 11.0 percent for the ...
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ArticleCVI upgrades outlook again as increased capacity kicks in
CooperCompanies has upgraded again its full-year outlook after the solid performance of its CooperVision (CVI) unit in the second quarter of fiscal 2024 ended April 30. Quarterly sales of contact lenses increased by 8 percent year-on-year to $635.9 million. On a constant-currency basis, they were up by 10 percent, returning ...
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ArticleTopcon topline driven by “blossoming” Screening Business and currencies
Revenues from Topcon eye care business unit jumped by 19.3 percent year-on-year to 21.0 billion Japanese yen (€118m) in the last quarter of the group’s fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. The strong Q4 momentum enabled the division to post record revenue for the full year, as the topline reached ...
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ArticleArts Optical posts 5% annual revenue growth on OEM business rebound in H2
Arts Optical has reported a 4.5 percent year-on-year increase in revenue to 1,196 million Hong Kong dollars (€141m) for fiscal 2023, accelerating from the 2.4 percent growth reported for the first half of the year. The annual revenue hike was driven by the rebound in the group’s Original Design Manufacturing ...
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ArticleVision Council switches 2024 US market forecast to “growth” after positive Q1
The Vision Council has improved its total US optical market value forecast for 2024 after its Market Insights Q1 2024 report showed increased spending and a higher number of eye exams by US consumers since the start of this year. The optical industry association is now expecting a 0.68 percent ...
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ArticleZEISS Vision Care publishes results of myopia control research on Asian and Caucasian children
ZEISS Vision Care announced at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) the results of its latest research on the benefits of MyoCare, its myopia control lenses, for Asian and Caucasian children. 240 Chinese children and 304 Caucasian children in Spain and Portugal, all ...
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ArticleWalgreens hoping to divest Boots in the UK
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) is once again looking to sell off its drugstores in the UK, “according to people familiar with the matter,” as Bloomberg reports. There are as yet no formal proceedings, and WBA has declined our invitation to comment on the sale. The original merger between Walgreens and ...
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ArticleGerman optical market slightly positive in 2023 despite declining volumes
The German optical retail market value increased by 1.4 percent year-on-year to €6,763 million including VAT in 2023 according to the annual report of the Zentralverband der Augenoptiker und Optometristen (ZVA), the German association of opticians and optometrists. We are publishing in this article a short selection of the data ...
