All Article articles – Page 193
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Ciba Vision Outperforms The Market
The Swiss parent company, Novartis, is gearing up for a new share repurchase program as well after recording a 6 percent increase in net profit to $5,016 million, equal to 20.2 percent of sales, on a 19 percent increase in revenues to $24.86 billion. Acquisitions, price increases and currency conversions ...
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Hal Will Control Grandvision
As we had previously anticipated, the founders and managers of GrandVision reached an agreement with HAL Trust last Tuesday morning that should give the latter a controlling interest in the large French-based optical retailing company. If completed, the deal will allow Pearle Europe to enter France and the UK, the ...
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Essilor Had More Profits Than Expected
The final 2003 results of Essilor International will only come out on March 4, yet the management indicates that they will show an operating margin close to 17 percent instead of the previously anticipated level of 16 percent. Strong sales in Germany and the USA lifted the group's revenues in ...
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Grandvision Improves Its Margins
GrandVision raised its net earnings after minority interests by 2.8 percent last year to €22,625,000, while revenues rose by only 0.2 percent to $603.6 million, due in part to the strong euro. The gross operating profit (Ebitda) increased by 6.4 percent to €93,512,000, thus reaching a margin of 15.5 percent. ...
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Hoya Posts A Higher Operating Margin In The Third Quarter
The euro appreciated by 6.1 percent against the Japanese yen in the quarter ended Dec. 31, and while the US dollar declined instead by 11.0 percent, currencies had a favorable impact on Hoya's results during the period. Like Essilor and other major players, Hoya also reports a major increase in ...
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Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the International Fair of Eye Optics...
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the International Fair of Eye Optics and Ophthalmology (OPTA) due to be held in Brno next Feb. 20-22, has given a 10 percent discount to all the exhibitors who have taken part in all its previous sessions. All visitors will have visible tags that will give ...
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A spreadsheet supplied by SILMO details the 11.84 percent in...
A spreadsheet supplied by SILMO details the 11.84 percent in the number of non-French visitors who attended last October's session, reaching a total of 19,159 persons. The biggest contingent came from Belgium, with 1,665 people or 16.87 percent more than in the previous year, followed by Germany with 1,565 persons ...
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Optic 2000 Has Big Plans For Lissac
Optic 2000 and Lissac, which completed their cross-shareholding agreement just before Christmas, are looking at the establishment of network of more than 1,400 optical stores in France by 2006, with retail sales of over €800 million a year. The Optic 2000 cooperative itself would reach by then revenues of more ...
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Next Jan. 24-27, ten small and medium-sized eyewear producers from...
Next Jan. 24-27, ten small and medium-sized eyewear producers from the Cadore region of Italy will take part in a trade mission to Dubai in the Arab Emirates, to meet local importers, wholesalers and distributors. Italy's annual exports to the region have topped €18 million. The mission is organized by ...
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Luxottica's Managers Stand To Obtain Up To 30% Of Its Equity
Commenting on speculation in the Italian press, Luxottica has admitted that it's studying a plan that would allow the management to obtain a higher shareholding in the company. It has stressed, however, that the plan is still in a preliminary phase and that in any case it would not allow ...
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Grandvision Had An Encouraging Sales Spurt In The 4th Quarter
The 2003 financial results of GrandVision, which ended up the year with a total of 390 stores, have not yet been disclosed, but the management of the French-based retail group indicates that its profitability improved in 2003 both in absolute terms and as a percentage of sales. A sharp uptick ...
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AAi FosterGrant, the large US-based supplier of branded and unbranded...
AAi FosterGrant, the large US-based supplier of branded and unbranded eyewear and jewelry, is moving upmarket with the acquisition of Gargoyles, a premium 20-year-old American brand of sports eyewear and its Anarchy, Angel, GForce and Idol-Eyez brands. Led by John Ranelli, a former executive of Timberland, Teva and Sperry, FosterGrant ...
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Average lens prices are going up in the USA, according...
Average lens prices are going up in the USA, according to a survey by Vision Council of America among its members. They are currently up by nearly 20 percent from 3 years ago, particularly in the single-vision category. The price of polycarbonate lenses has risen by 31 percent and their ...
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Is Hal Going To Acquire Cole National?
That's one of the latest unconfirmed rumors surrounding the US chain which, as reported, set up a strategic committee last October to evaluate possible alternatives to the takeover proposal made by another company, said to be Luxottica. In a recent newspaper interview, Leonardo Del Vecchio, Luxottica's chairman, refused to comment ...
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Afflelou Grows Faster Than Expected
Europe's largest chain of franchised optical stores, which took over Optique Carrefour last year, raised its revenues on a comparable basis by 10.3 percent to €58.2 million in the 1st half ended last Oct. 31. Its net income rose by 8.8 percent to €11.1 million, in spite of high interest ...
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Thomas Zettler, European manager of Marchon, has left after a...
Thomas Zettler, European manager of Marchon, has left after a little more than one year in the job. Andy Skidmore, who had been running the UK subsidiary until 18 months ago to move to Marchon's headquarters in New York, is taking over Zettler's responsibilities, at least for the moment. No ...
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ANFAO, the Italian eyewear industry association, will shortly hold a...
ANFAO, the Italian eyewear industry association, will shortly hold a high-level meeting of key members to disuss the future role of the trade fairs in the market. The general sentiment is that two or three major international shows are sufficient for some international companies to cover most of the European ...
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Boots announced last week a reorganization plan that would reduce...
Boots announced last week a reorganization plan that would reduce by 900 the headcount at its head office in Nottingham and in regional support functions by cutting down come layers of management, while adding 290 new jobs in the group's stores. Store managers have been given more flexibility in opening ...
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Big Changes In Equity At Swank
Swank International Manufacturing, which has been in a tight cash flow situation lately, removed Eddy Lau as chief operating officer and executive director on Dec. 15. It seems likely that his ouster was related to changes in ownership that resulted in Swank's public float's being restored on Dec. 16. Swank ...
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Opti-münchen Enjoyes A Boom In The Wake Of The German Health Reform
There were many smiling faces at the 3-day Opti-München fair, which ended yesterday in modern new fairgrounds with a 25 percent increase in the number of visitors to 31,344 persons - 31 percent of them foreigners. As of Jan. 1, the German government's social security system is no longer giving ...
