All Article articles – Page 224
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Alain Afflelou Regains Control Of His Chain, And Plans To Launch Another One
In a transaction that values his group at 137.2 million euros, Alain Afflelou has raised from 30 to 58 percent his personal stake in the French optical chain that bears his own name. The balance of the shareholding is now in the hands of two institutional investors, Apax Partners with ...
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Fedon, King Of Eyeglass Cases, Diversifies Into Stationery After Expanding
The Western world's leading manufacturer of eyeglass cases, Italy's Fedon, is diversifying its product range, adding office stationery and related equipment. After decades of experience in satisfying the increasing demands of big-name clients in the eyewear sector, including most of the major fashion brands on the market, the Fedon family ...
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Italy's Eyewear Output Starts Growing Again, Thanks Mainly To Sunglasses
The stagnation experienced by the Italian eyewear industry throughout 1999 would seem to be over. Initial figures show that production in the 1st quarter of 2000 increased by 8.1 percent as compared to the same period last year. According to Paolo Cannicci, chairman of the Italian eyewear manufacturers association (Anfao), ...
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Anfao Strikes A Deal With Marsh For Insurance Against Non-payment
Italy's eyewear manufacturers now have the means of insuring themselves against the risks of non-payment by their clients. On May 8, their trade association, Anfao, signed an agreement with Marsh, one of the major insurance brokers in the world, to get their merchandise insured from the moment they are picked ...
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Alain Sanne Is Viva's New Eurochief
Alain Sanne joined Viva International in 1989 to run its French operations, and he took over responsibility also for the UK market more than one year ago. Sanne has now been appointed to a new position as the US company's European director, with a brief to develop a stronger and ...
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Giorgio Armani Joins Luxottica's Board On Higher Earnings
Giorgio Armani has become a director of Luxottica, confirming the growing integration between the fashion and eyewear industries. Instead of simply licensing their hot brand names, Italian fashion houses have been getting steadily more involved, first in the equity and now in the management, of their eyewear licensees (see also ...
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Biocompatibles Buys Hydron
Biocompatibles, the UK-based maker of Proclear Comptatible contact lenses, has acquired its British competitor, Hydron, whose assets and goodwill outside the Americas had been sold by Allergan to a group of institutional investors in 1993. The acquisition propels Biocompatibles into the second spot in the UK after Johnson & Johnson, ...
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General Optica, Prada And New Luxury Brand Licenses Boost De Rigo's Turnover
Higher earnings are expected this year for De Rigo, and its sales should grow to 890-900 billion lire (e460-465m-$425-430m), as compared to 622.6 billion lire in 1999, and then rise to one trillion lire in 2001. De Rigo's wholesale turnover should remain more or less unchanged this year. Besides ...
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Two Norwegian Buying Groups Merge
Interoptik, a 15-year-old cooperative of Norwegian opticians, has merged with a 3-year-old cooperative, Z:Optikk, forming a new company, Optikk Norge, which has an estimated 34 percent market share in Norway, with an annual retail turnover of about 650 million Norwegian kroner (e80m-$70m). Halvor Bjerke, who has been running Interoptik, will ...
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Essilor's Major Shareholder Cashes Out
Saint-Gobain, the large French glass company, has announced that it wants to sell its 32.9 percent share in Essilor International in order to finance its growing diversification in the distribution of construction materials and in high-tech fields such as technical plastics and ceramics. The disposal of its shareholding, which is ...
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Improving Safilo's Chairman Resigns
Safilo's management crisis is far from over. Vittorio Tabacchi, the 60-yearV-old executive who became chairman of the family-owned group 7 years ago, announced his resignation last May 16, just 4 days after the formal approval of the company's brilliant results for 1999 and for the the first quarter of 2000. ...
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Sola Strives To Cut Corners
About 400-500 employees, representing between 7 and 8 percent of Sola International's global workforce, have been let go over the past few months, and the total tally may grow to 600 by year-end. In general, Sola is moving production from California to Mexico, and from Mexico to China, while eliminating ...
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Euronet Sets Foot In France
Alain Afflelou and Optic 2000 have joined all the major suppliers of ophthalmic lenses, with the notable exception of Essilor International, to set up EuroNet France, the French counterpart of the EuroNet internet service launched two years ago in Germany under the auspices of Rodenstock. Besides Rodenstock, other founding members ...
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Sunglass Hut Recovers In Europe
The European operations of this US-based international chain of sunglass and watch stores became profitable again last year under the management of Richard Leynes, having basically completed their establishment. Aside from 55 stores in the UK, Sunglass Hut now has a further 29 outlets in Ireland, Holland, Belgium, France, Portugal ...
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Mido Gets Fewer Visitors Of Higher Quality, And More Foreigners Overall
The eyewear market has been undergoing a major reorganization of retail networks, and Italy is no exception. Many small independent outlets are integrating themselves into buying groups or into national or international chains. A signal of this evolution was given at the edition of MIDO, the largest optical fair in ...
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Marcolin Had A Good First Quarter
Marcolin improved its pre-tax profit margin to 7,832 million lire (e4m-$3.8m) or 12 percent of sales in the 1st quarter ended March 31, as compared to a margin of only 8.2 percent for all of the past year. Sales increased by 46 percent to 65,744 million lire (e34m-$32m) from the ...
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Essilor Banks On Branding, Service And Internet To Sustain Annual 10% Growth
Essilor International plans to set up and operate relatively open continental internet portals in North America, Europe and Asia over the next few years to sell its own lenses and their features as ?custom-made? and ?ready-made? products to the opticians and to their customers, involving also other major web operators ...
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Iga Optic Raises Its Turnover By 17%
All three main segments of the German buying cooperative's business ? central settlements, private label programs and the sale of advertising and promotion services ? contributed to raise IGA Optic's turnover by 17 percent last year to 86 million DM (e44m-$48m), generating a profit that is being redistributed among the ...
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Eyefashion 2000 Gets Mixed Reviews
The new London optical show, sponsored by the British Ophthalmic Exhibitors Association (OEA), exceeded expectations at first session from 31 March through 2 April, in spite of its bad timing, coinciding with Vision Expo in New York, a major football match and Mother's Day. Over 2,500 people attended the new ...
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Hoya Acquires Us Lab Network, Reports Mixed Results
Essilor International already has an estimated 22-23 percent market share at the wholesale prescription laboratory level in the USA, and wants to raise it to 30 percent, in connection with a new global service-oriented, internet-based strategy. Following the policy initiated by Essilor to conquer the world's largest eyewear market, Hoya ...
