All Article articles – Page 195
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Sales Double At Fielmann
Many of the 1,700 apprentices at Fielmann's training centers are grinding lenses these days in order to cope with an avalanche of customers' requests at the chain's 455 stores in Germany. For the first time in company's history, business has stayed 100 percent above year-ago levels throughout the month of ...
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Logo Improves Results Under New Ownership
Logo's long-time CEO, Dominique Alba, anticipates a 40 percent increase in the company's operating profit this year, resulting in an Ebit margin of about 7 percent, and the debt has been reduced to only €1.5 million. Sales should increase by 4 percent to €49 million, with exports representing about 60 ...
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Hoya's Quarterly Eye Care Sales Grow By 5.0%
At 5,812, the number of employees in Hoya's vision care division, represented essentially by its ophthalmic lenses, marked a decline of 567 persons from one year ago by the end of the 1st half of its financial year last Sept. 30. The Japanese group says it will continue to try ...
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Sales Are Off By 7.8% At Boots Opticians
Boots Opticians' sales fell by 7.8 percent to £100.4 million (e144.7m-$169.4m) in the 6 months ended Sept. 30, reflecting the highly competitive conditions in the UK eyewear market. Furthermore, the group's emergent LASIK operations continued to suffer from some adverse publicity about the perceived health risks in laser eye surgery ...
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Luxottica's Sales Begin To Rise Again
After a drop of 5.9 percent in the previous two quarters, due mainly to the end of its licensing contract with Giorgio Armani, sales in local currencies rose by 3.4 percent for the Luxottica group in the 3rd quarter. However, the strong euro led the group to post a 6.3 ...
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Airess Files For Bankruptcy Protection
The French company says 6 out of its 8 banks had accepted a financial solution that would have involved the cancellation of some of its debt and the rescheduling of the balance as a condition for an equity increase that would have been financed by a wealthy individual in the ...
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Allison Is Likely To Get Cerruti
Negotiations are underway between Allison and Cerruti, an Italian fashion house which has an eyewear license with Rodenstock that will not be renewed after it expires next year following the transfer of most of its frame licenses to Moulin International (see the last issue of EWI). No agreement has been ...
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Essilor Benefits From The Apparent Market Recovery In The Usa And Japan
A 3.7 percent year-on-year uptick in the 3rd quarter, in contrast with growth of 2.3 percent in the 1st half, allowed Essilor International to book a 2.8 sales increase for the first 9 months of this year in terms of continuing operations and constant currencies. While acquisitions added 2.1 percentage ...
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Safilo Says It's Doing Well With Armani
The transfer of the Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani licenses from Leonardo Del Vecchio's group to Vittorio Tabacchi's camp was not entirely painless. In the first half of the year Luxottica got rid of its inventories of Armani eyewear at ex factory prices. The volumes were such that they ended ...
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Weaker Dollar Is Hurting Asian Factories Only Mildly
The fact that the US dollar is now some 31 percent weaker against the euro than it was 19 months ago has had ambiguous effects for some large Asian manufacturers who work with European firms. Some of those exhibiting at the recent Hong Kong Optical Fair, like Arts Optical, Elegance, ...
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Bausch Grows Faster Than The Market
Bausch & Lomb's sales of contact lenses rose by 13 percent in dollars and by 8 percent in local currencies in the 3rd quarter, in a global market estimated to have risen by 5-6 percent. In Europe, where B&L claims a market share of nearly 20 percent in multi-focal lenses, ...
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Marcolin Gets The Timberland License But Its Profits Fall Below Zero
With revenues projected at over €50 million for the duration of the renewable 4-year contract, the acquisition of the Timberland license, which was revealed during last month's SILMO fair in Paris, should compensate for the loss of the Fornarina license, which expires this year. The strong Timberland brand was previously ...
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De Rigo Performs Better At Retail Than At Wholesale
The group's British optical retail chain, Dollond & Aitchison, performed better than the market in the 9 months ended Sept. 30, raising its sales by 7.1 percent in pounds sterling, with a 7.3 percent increase on a comparable store basis, although its franchised stores did only 1.6 percent better. These ...
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Mazucchelli Buys Into Comotec
The two companies supply the same frame manufacturers worldwide, and together they generate annual revenues of around €95 million. An agreement has been signed between these two major European suppliers of semi-finished materials, resulting in manufacturing and sales synergies for their respective plastic and metal products. Mazzucchelli, an ...
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Sola Proposes A Refinancing Package As Results Continue To Improve
After reporting improving results for some time, SOLA International is now proposing a recapitalization that would allow the company to redeem 35 percent of its outstanding 11 percent senior notes, which are due in March of 2008, reducing interest charges by $17-19 million a year and adding flexibility to the ...
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Oakley Will Introduce New Styles To Counter A Drop In Sunglass Sales
Sales of Oakley apparel have grown by about 50 percent in Europe so far this year, representing about 10 percent of its total sales in the region, and the brand's footwear range is also going strong. This spurt helped to compensate for very weak sales of sunglasses in Southern ...
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Torics Drive Ocular Sciences' Growth
Ocular Sciences has decided to postpone for 6 months until next June the planned shutdown of its conventional production lines in the UK for toric contact lenses to cope with the market's demand in this growing segment of its business and to help avoid any possible risks in the planned ...
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Fedon Returns To Growth
Fedon, the leading supplier of eyewear cases, is climbing back gradually toward the half-year record posted two years ago, when it clocked up first-half sales of €34.5 million before slipping to €28.9 million in the 1st half of 2002. For the 1st half ended last June 30, its sales were ...
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Indo's Net Profits Rise Sharply
The integrated Spanish group raised its pre-tax profit sharply to €2,347,000 in the first 9 months of this year from €935,000 in the same period of 2002, thanks to better management and to the non-recurrence of certain extraordinary charges. INDO's revenues rose by 2.3 percent to €91.4 million, and the ...
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The Market Believes That Luxottica Is Going After Cole National Now
Luxottica has an official ?no comment? on widespread rumors that it is now offering to take over Cole National, one of the largest optical retail chains in North America, with 2,181 locations in the vision business, and holder of a 21 percent interest in Pearle Europe, which is becoming the ...
