All Article articles – Page 227
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New Optical Show Debuts In London
Eyefashion 2000 makes its debut at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London from Friday, March 31 through Sunday, Apr. 2. Organized by the Opthalmic Exhibitors' Association, the new event is expected to be held every other year, in alternation with the association's older Optafair, a show for suppliers to ...
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The Euro Effect Slows Marcolin's Profits
In spite of healthy sales, 1999 was a year of sluggish profit growth for Marcolin, says the Italian eyewear firm. The consolidated balance sheet has not yet come out, but the management has already made it clear that it had to sacrifice profit margins in order to maintain market shares, ...
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Grandvision Grows Faster Than Fielmann
GrandVision has hired Francesco Zanotto as its chief buyer, creating a new position within the French company's purchasing and distribution apparatus and underscoring its ambition to beat Fielmann someday. Zanotto worked for Fielmann for 15 years, most recently as manager of its Louvre production and trading subsidiary in Switzerland, where ...
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Fielmann Reports Improved Results
The leading German optical retail chain raised its pre-tax earnings by 18.4 percent to 122.3 million DM (e62.5m-$60.1m) in 1999, representing a nice margin of almost 10 percent on non-consolidated sales of 1,270 million DM (e650-$625m), which include franchisees' sales, agents' sales and sales of lenses manufactured in-house to Fielmann's ...
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Oakley Reports A Loss, Pushes Prescription Glasses
Oakley suffered a net loss of $2,506,000 in the 4th quarter ended last Dec. 31, but its net income actually grew by 66 percent to $5.7 million before extraordinary charges of $8.2 million for the restructuring of its footwear operations. For the year, Oakley's net income before restructuring charges grew ...
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Luxottica's Net Margin May Go Over 10%
Luxottica expects to improve its net profit margin to at least 10 percent this year on a consolidated turnover that will break for the first time the barrier of 4 trillion lire (e2bn), following better-than-expected results in the 4th quarter. At the wholesale level, group orders as of last Dec. ...
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Bausch & Lomb Has Solid 4q Profit Thanks To Renewed Focus
Bausch & Lomb feels well on its way to reinventing itself as a market force in disposable contact lenses and refractive surgery products. After disposing of its older, non-core businesses such as its Ray-Ban sunglasses and its hearing aid operations, it has decided to ramp up R&D and marketing for ...
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De Rigo Acquires Spain's General Optica
De Rigo has acquired General Optica, Spain's leading optical retail chain with 112 outlets in Spain and Portugal, for about $110 million. A few months ago General Optica was still eyeing a public offering on the Madrid stock exchange. The new owners plan to expand the chain, which is still ...
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Safilo's Turnover Reaches Almost One Trillion Lire
Safilo's turnover grew more than expected last year. This leading Italian glasses manufacturer, second only to Luxottica, raised its turnover by 17 percent to 987 billion lire (e510m), instead of the 930 billion lire (e480m) previously budgeted. In particular, the group's sports division, with its Carrera and Smith lines, had ...
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Apollo And Karstadt Form An Optical Partnership
Apollo-Optik, which is already the second-largest optical retailer in Germany after Fielmann, reinforces its market position by taking over 42 optical shops that have been operated by Karstadt within its own department stores or right next to them, plus Karstadt's edging facility and its logistic center in Essen, together with ...
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New Progressive Lenses Come To The Market In Europe
At least 3 major European suppliers are launching this year new high-tech ranges of progressive ophthalmic lenses in order to keep the momentum going and to capitalize on the progress in computer measurement techniques and in other sectors. Essilor has presented in France a few weeks ago its 5th ...
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Rodenstock Consolidates In The Usa, And Weighs Possible Public Offering
Rodenstock has decided to concentrate its North American lens business on the premises of 2C Optics, the innovative manufacturer of prescription ophthalmic lenses based in Alpharetta, Georgia, which will be renamed as Rodenstock North America. The existing office of Rodenstock USA in Danbury, Connecticut, will concentrate on the spectacle frame ...
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Essilor Improves Its Results Slightly
Essilor's net income, which had surged by 27 percent in 1998, rose by only 0.7 percent last year to 118.3 million euros. The operating margin declined from 14.3 to 13.7 percent, partly because of an increase of about 90 million French francs (e14m) in data processing costs, partly connected to ...
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Ital Lenti Presents Production Plan For Galileo Italia
Local authorities and the labor unions have signed an agreement in principle to support a business plan presented by Ital Lenti of Belluno last Jan. 19 to start up again production of ophthalmic lenses under the Galileo brand name at a new industrial plant at Marghera, near Venice. Besides taking ...
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Grandvision Moves Into The Italian Market
The French retail group is rolling out the GrandOptical banner in Italy this year, while continuing to expand in Switzerland and the UK. In Switzerland, where it opened last year its first optical store in Lausanne, it's going to take for the first time the daring step of competing directly ...
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Grandvision Opens 1,000-sqm. Store
Grand Optical has renovated its Parisian megastore on the Champs-Elysées, expanding it to 1,000 square meters on 2 floors, which makes it probably the largest optical store in Europe. Designed by Gérard Barrau, it will serve as a prototype for other superstores that Grand Optical's parent company, GrandVision, plans to ...
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Application Of The New European Nickel Directive To Eyewear Is Still In Doubt
By Jan. 20, 2000 all the member governments of the European Union must abide by Directive 94/27, which regulates the use of nickel in metal alloy products that come into contact with the skin, but its application to eyewear frames is not clear yet. The new European directive concerns ...
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Italocremona Becomes Ic Optics, Licenses Benetton's Sports Eyewear
The Italian eyewear manufacturer has decided to give itself a new corporate identity, using the IC Optics trade name and logo to emphasize its concentration on the optical sector, following the recent acquisition of a 50 percent stake by the Gianni Versace fashion house in its own eyewear operations. Family ...
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Rodenstock's Bid For Galileo Is Off
Rodenstock has not been able yet to make a formal offer, but its preliminary proposal to take over the whole Galileo group together with two local Italian entrepreneurs has been turned down. The German company, whose core business is shifting from ophthalmic instruments to lenses, had shown interest in acquiring ...
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Nordic Buying Group Plans To Offer More Private Label Items, Including Lenses
Nordic Optical Partners, a consortium of buying groups that control an estimated 22-23 percent of the optical market in the Nordic countries, plans to approach suppliers in the course of 2000 to develop a common private brand of optical lenses, contact lenses and solutions that can be sourced by all ...
