All Article articles – Page 210
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The recently merged Bacou-Dalloz group, which has become the world's...
The recently merged Bacou-Dalloz group, which has become the world's leading supplier of personal safety and protection items, suffered a 2.2 percent sales decline last year on a comparable basis and in local currencies, but acquisitions and foreign exchange gains allowed it to raise pro forma revenues by 2.7 percent ...
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Bernard Galan has replaced Harro Lotz as managing director of...
Bernard Galan has replaced Harro Lotz as managing director of Rodenstock France. Galan, 38, previously held the posts of general manager and director responsible for strategy and finance at CIBA Vision in France. Before joining CIBA, Galan was the marketing director for Pacific Asia and Hong Kong at Essilor International. ...
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Bmc Consolidates Vision-ease Capacities
BMC Industries has decided to close its optical products production facility in Azusa, California in the first half of the year. Vision-Ease, the company's optical division, will transfer its expanding its production of polycarbonate lenses to its own plant in Jakarta, Indonesia, while its production of polarized lenses will be ...
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Hoya Improves Margins In Vision Care
In the 2nd quarter ended last Dec. 31, Hoya Corp. managed to improve by 31 percent the operating income of its vision care operations, despite a sluggish market in Japan. Their operating margin improved in the quarter to 10.9 percent of sales, which grew overall by 6.7 percent to 22,534 ...
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Ciba Vision Improves Margins
Novartis says its CIBA Vision division raised its sales by 33 percent in local currencies and by percent in Swiss francs to 1.8 billion SF (e1.2bn-$1.1bn) in 2001, with the newly acquired Wesley Jessen operation accounting for 28 percentage points of the growth. The diversified Swiss pharmaceutical group is confident ...
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Specsavers Claims Major Growth
Specsavers Opticians reports that its joint venture partners reached a 12 percent sales increase on a same-store basis in the 2001 calendar year, as compared to growth rates of 15.2 percent in 1999 and 9.7 percent in 2000. Remodeling and extensions were probably at the heart of this exceptional performance ...
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De Rigo has finally fixed a date for its flotation...
De Rigo has finally fixed a date for its flotation on the Milan stock exchange. IntesaBci and Lazard, the banks that are managing the admission procedure, indicate that it's tentatively scheduled for the 3rd quarter of 2002, depending on market conditions. Some 10 percent of the equity will be floated, ...
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Germany's Domestic Market Shrinks And Exports Fall
The year 2001 was a difficult one for Germany's eyewear industry. Exports fell by 7.6 percent to e519 million, while imports rose by 7.9 percent to e721 million. The domestic market also shrank, with sales of frames down by 4 percent as compared to the previous year. Last ...
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Spy Eyes A Doubling In European Sales
Spy, the hot California brand of sunglasses, is said to be enjoying one the fastest growth rates in the USA, where it reached a turnover of about $40 million last year. According to Transworld, the cult magazine of American surfers, Spy is now third in popularity after Oakley and Smith, ...
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Ocular Sciences saw its profitability reduced for last year due...
Ocular Sciences saw its profitability reduced for last year due to a $24.1 million extraordinary charge for the writeoff of obsolete equipment. The company posted a net loss of $14.9 million in the 4th quarter of 2001 on 57 percent higher revenues of $67.1 million, against a net income of ...
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Article
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Vendex International, the large Dutch retail...
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Vendex International, the large Dutch retail group, has decided to put up for sale its optical retail activities. Vendex is the largest optical retailer in the Netherlands. It operates about 230 shops under the Hans Anders banner, of which 15 are located in Belgium. It also ...
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Fielmann Has Nearly Flat Earnings
Fielmann, which is now Europe's largest optical retail chain and the third-largest one worldwide after LensCrafters/Sunglass Hut and Cole National/Pearle Europe, raised its net income by only about 1 percent to 39 million euros last year, according to preliminary financial data, and it would have earned less without new tax ...
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Seen by Silmo, the traveling eyewear exhibition launched last year...
Seen by Silmo, the traveling eyewear exhibition launched last year by the Silmo international optical trade show, will hit the road again this spring. This year's show will first be held in Toronto on Apr. 13-14 in conjunction with Vision Canada East, then move on to Amsterdam on June 2-3, ...
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Grandvision's Margins Are Improving
Europe's second-largest optical retail chain more than doubled its operating margin before interest and charges (Ebit) to 5.2 percent of sales last year from 2.4 percent in 2000 on a pro forma basis, excluding the photo shops that it sold last spring. Before charges related to store openings and closings, ...
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Pro-laser Weco Is Insolvent
Winfried Andres, the court-appointed administrator, is trying to find a solution that will allow Pro-Laser Weco company to continue to operate and to honor its numerous orders through a new cash injection. Weco, whose staff has been cut from 250 to 190 persons since July, registered more orders at the ...
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Sola's Turnaround Is In Sight
Sola International's European operations were again the star performer in the 3rd quarter ended Dec. 31. The group's total consolidated sales dropped by 0.3 percent on a constant currency and comparable basis in the 3-month period, going down by 0.7 percent in dollars to $126.3 million, but Europe was up ...
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Grandvision Posts A 10% Sales Increase For The Year
The French-based optical retail group saw its stockmarket value appreciate by more than 15 percent after it reported last Jan. 8 a 10 percent sales increase for the past year to 558 million euros, or 2 percentage points less than previously budgeted, while adding that margins were in line with ...
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Essilor Reaches A 14.9% Operating Margin
The world's largest lens manufacturer raised its operating margin to an exceptional level of 14.9 percent last year from 13.9 percent in 2000, citing a better product mix and productivity gains across the whole supply chain, which will continue in 2002. Higher sales of higher value-added products and the improved ...
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Luxottica Reaches A 15.2% Margin In Us Retailing
The acquisition of Sunglass Hut last March has paid off earlier than expected. Financed to the tune of 91.3 million euros from Luxottica's own funds, the takeover caused the overall net debt to increase by e561.7 million to e1,469.9 million in the course of 2001, but the Sunglass Hut and ...
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Mark Ashcroft, the 39-year-old Irish executive who has been running...
Mark Ashcroft, the 39-year-old Irish executive who has been running Sola International's European commercial operations since October of 1999, is now moving to California to act as president of the group's less buoyant commercial operations in North and South American. He replaces Brett Olson, who has resigned. Ashcroft, who joined ...
