All Article articles – Page 182
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Oakley's New Sunglasses Sell Well
Oakley's newest sunglass styles, including Crosshair, Whisker, Bottlecap, Gascan and Riddle, generated 65.6 percent higher sales in the 2nd quarter of this year than last year's new sunglass releases, helping the company to achieve better results in this important period of the year, although the European business continued to lag ...
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Essilor Acquires Definity
The pundits had given for certain the fact that Johnson & Johnson was going to acquire Rodenstock, which is more or less on the selling block, as a means of expanding the distribution of its Definity brand of personalized progressive lenses. The line has not yet enjoyed much popularity since ...
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Alain Afflelou Reports Improved Results
The French franchisor' net profit increased by 12.6 percent to €26 million in the financial year ended last Apr. 30 before goodwill amortization. It was nearly stable at €22.8 million after goodwill. The gross profit went up by 15.5 percent to €50.6 million, with a 21.3 percent increase for Alain ...
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Grandvision And Specsavers Seek A Role In The Hearing Aids Market
GrandVision has inaugurated a sophisticated GrandAudition store on Paris' plush Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées, not far from the flagship store of its GrandOptical chain of high-end optical stores. Like GrandOptical, the new 500-square-meter pilot store offers a pair of customized digital hearing aids in one hour, in contrast with a classical ...
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Alain Mikli Develops Franchising And Seeks Higher Price Points
Alain Mikli is developing a new distribution strategy aimed at increasing its geographic coverage and at enhancing its high-end positioning in the market, mainly through franchises and other partnership with selected opticians. At present there is only one franchised Alain Mikli shop, located in Paris, but by the ...
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Europe And North America Drive Improvements At Elegance
Elegance International saw its turnover rise by 23.7 percent to HK$405.5 million (€43.6m-$52.2m) for the 12-month period ended March 31, and its net earnings nearly doubled to HK$36.8 million (€4.0m-$4.7m). Net profit margins strengthened to 9.1 percent against 5.8 percent, even though gross margin declined to 25 percent from 27.1 ...
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Investors Target Individual Assets Of Moulin In Provisional Liquidation
The provisional liquidators of Moulin Global Eyecare Holdings and industry sources indicate that about a dozen different potential investors, including several investment companies and the likes of Hal Trust and Eschenbach, have expressed some interest in taking over some of the spoils of the Hong Kong-based group. Evidently, Moulin has ...
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Italy's Good Performance In Sunglasses Balances Out Lower Frame Exports
The Italian eyewear industry generated €1,529 million worth of exports in 2004, representing an increase of 1 percent year-on-year and 81.5 percent of its total revenues of €1,876 million, which grew by 0.3 percent. Sunglasses covered almost two-thirds of total exports, which were up by 6 percent to €906 million, ...
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Hal And Luxottica Buy Up Chinese Retail Chains
Hal Holdings, which is already a dominant factor in the European optical retail market through Pearle Europe and GrandVision, has shifted its focus to the large Chinese market by signing a deal to buy a 70 percent interest in Shanghai Redstar Optical Co. through a subsidiary, Hal Investments Asia. Redstar ...
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China Time Investment Buys Swank
China Time Investment Holding (CTIH), a mining group based in Yunnan, China, has purchased 60 percent of Swank in a deal valuing the company at HK$93.6 million (€10.1m-$12.0m). Indicating that the transaction is purely of a financial nature, Swank says the purchase will have no effect on its plans, its ...
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Coopervision Plans New Hydrogel Releases
CooperVision plans to introduce an improved ?second generation? of silicon hydrogel contact lenses in the 2nd half of 2005, starting with a line of spheres that will be marketed first in Europe. Its Proclear range of products will be vastly expanded over the next 12-36 months, adding for example toric ...
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Specsavers Enters Denmark And Norway
Specsavers has acquired the 32-store Louis Nielsen chain in Denmark in its first investment in the country. The 9-year-old integrated chain is already a leader in the market for affordable eyecare in Denmark, with an estimated market share of 20 percent in volume and 10 percent in value in the ...
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Randazzo Acquires 36 Corners And Reaches A Total Of 122 Outlets
The Angelo Randazzo group, originally founded in Palermo, Sicily, now has a total of 122 outlets in 16 regions of Italy. It has pursued its expansionfter acquiring the 31 stores of the bankrupt Ottica Romani chain last year for €14.5 million. On the eve of the MIDO show in Milan, ...
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Attendance Grows By 5.8% At Mido
The return to its former 4-day format resulted in a 5.8 percent increase in visitors to the MIDO fair in 2005 compared with last year's session. A total of 39,278 people turned up to visit 1,222 companies showcasing around 2,000 different brands. With only a few exceptions, exhibitors were generally ...
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German Firms Perform Better Abroad
German producers of eyewear lenses and frames are expecting a further increase of about 10 percent in their business outside the country this year, the same as in 2004. According to their industry association, Spectaris, German companies should be able to reach total revenues of nearly €3.3 billion this year, ...
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Marcolin Pins Hopes On Tom Ford And Ferrari After A Negative Quarter
Marcolin will lay off between 35 and 40 of the 110 people employed at Cébé International, the French sports eyewear company that it bought in 1999. Cébé, which had 4 percent lower sales of €23.3 million last year, will maintain the production of ski goggles at its factory at Frasnes, ...
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Allison Signs Up With Birkkembergs
Allison has added Dirk Bikkembergs to its stable of brands. The agreement signed with the Belgian designer on the eve of the recent MIDO show covers the worldwide production and distribution of top-end sun and prescription eyewear for a 5-year period, renewable for a further five. The models will retail ...
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Machinery Sales Move To Asia
The eyewear machinery business is following the market both in terms of economic performance and geographical movement. For example, Germany's Haug, whose equipment covers the entire production process from welding to lens cutting, is now delivering 85 percent of it to China and the rest to Europe. Back in 1995, ...
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Small Italian Firms Ask For State Help
The small and medium-sized producers in Italy's Belluno district that belong to SIPAO, the local association of eyewear manufacturers, have drawn up a joint plan to market and promote their products on an international scale. They are requesting a contribution from the regional and national authorities and various state bodies ...
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Average Selling Prices Drop At Fielmann
Fielmann's quarterly financial report shows a 13.3 percent decline in consolidated sales to €169.0 million for the period ended March 31, as compared to the first three months of last year, although the quantities sold increased to 1.4 million pairs from 1.28 million pairs. Company officials attribute the decline in ...
