All Article articles – Page 48
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ArticleEyewear industry stock prices up 10% in Q1
Following the publication for the first time of our industry stock market capitalization at the start of the year, we are providing here a quarterly update for the evolution of the stock price of 19 stock listed companies operating in our core market, showing its evolution between Jan. 1 and ...
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New Look Vision Group sales up 25% in Q4
After having posted a 17 percent increase in revenues in Q3, the Canadian optical retailer New Look Vision Group accelerated its recovery in the last quarter of the 2020 financial year, reporting overall revenues of 92.4 million Canadian dollars, a 25 percent hike from the previous year. The growth was ...
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SABIC and POLYRAY partner on renewable PC lens
SABIC, a global supplier of chemicals based in Saudi Arabia, and Xiamen Hongtai Optical, the Chinese lens manufacturer better known under its POLYRAY brand name, announced last week their collaboration for the launch of a new sustainable material. Under the agreement, POLYRAY is launching its new BioPC lens range for ...
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ArticleAcuitis’ door count passes the 100 mark
Acuitis, the French banner of optical and hearing aids’ shops, kept opening new franchised stores at a steady pace last year in spite of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Adding 14 new retail locations, the Acuitis door count reached a total of 103 stores in eight ...
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ArticleLuxexcel and WaveOptics partner for smart eyewear to look like normal eyewear
Luxexcel, the Dutch pioneer in 3D-printing solutions for prescription lenses, unveiled last week some details about its partnership with WaveOptics, a designer of waveguides and light engines, during the online SPIE. AR, VR, MR conference. Earlier last month, both companies had already announced their collaboration in the ...
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New owner for Rodenstock
Apax Partners, a private equity firm based in the U.K., has agreed to acquire Rodenstock from Compass Partners, another investment fund and the majority shareholder of the German brand of high-end lenses and frames since February 2016. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed. It is subject to ...
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ArticleEU green light for Essilux-GrandVision merger
Putting a final point to an investigation started in December 2019, the European Union (EU) announced yesterday evening its conditional clearance for the acquisition of GrandVision by EssilorLuxottica. The green light is conditioned to the divestment, proposed by EssilorLuxottica, of a total of 351 stores in Belgium, Italy and the ...
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New Look Vision Group changes hands
New Look Vision Group, a leading optical retailer in Canada, has announced an agreement for its acquisition by NL1 AcquireCo, a newly created investment vehicle composed of funds managed by FFL Partners, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), an investment fund from San Francisco and the family ...
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ArticleNovacel extends Leica footprint, increases French market share
The French-based lens maker Novacel almost put a final touch to its European distribution network for the German licensed brand Leica Eyecare, with the implementation of a network of regional distributors in Italy. Leica lenses are now available throughout Europe except for Denmark, Norway, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, ...
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ArticleMido 2021 goes digital
In a live online conference followed by exhibitors, visitors, journalists and other stakeholders earlier today, Giovanni Vitaloni, president of the Italian industry association Anfao, announced that the 2021 edition of Mido, the international eyewear trade show scheduled for next June 5 to 7, would take place online ...
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Eyesafe wants to become the reference brand for blue light protection
The average time spent in front of screens increased to an estimated 13 hours and 38 minutes per day last year, a 30 percent increase from a year before, according to an announcement by Eyesafe last week. In the same communication, the company also stressed that eye strain has become ...
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Maison Bourgeat relaunched in a DTC venture
Vertical integration has been the name of the game lately in many industries including ours, and even more so since the Covid-19 outbreak, with brands going direct to consumer as the dominant pattern. The revival project of the Maison Bourgeat name offers a different picture though, with a 5-store optical ...
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ArticleRazer partners with online optical retailer for smartglasses
Razer, an international brand of IT and lifestyle products for gamers and e-sports fans with 100 million users worldwide, is launching its first smart glasses this month. Called Razer Anzu, the new product combines Bluetooth functionalities with 35 percent blue light filtering lenses that can be easily ...
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ArticleEssilorLuxottica returns to growth
EssilorLuxottica is on a recovery path after a difficult second quarter, when revenues were nearly halved amid Covid-19 lockdowns. Sales in the fourth quarter were up by 1.7 percent in constant currencies. For the second half of the year, revenues gained 0.3 percent from the year-ago period to €8,199 million, ...
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ArticleSafilo confirms H2 recovery, keeps streamlining
Publishing its final results for its fourth quarter and complete 2020 financial year yesterday, Safilo announced that it remained focused on its transition and the implementation of its group business plan after a difficult and contrasting year in a Covid-19 market environment. The group managed to end 2020 with a ...
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ArticleSafilo to use Eastman sustainable materials from 2022
Safilo has announced that it would start using Eastman’s sustainable materials for its eyewear collections starting from 2022. The Italian maker selected the Eastman Tritan Renew, a copolyester made of 50 percent recycled content, for use in both sunglasses and eyeglasses of its proprietary brand Polaroid Eyewear, ...
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French social security expects more impact from its eyecare reform in the future
In a roundtable with a French journalists’ association last week, Frank von Lennep, the country’s social security director said that 14 percent of eyeglasses’ frames and 12 percent of corrective lenses sold had been picked from the Class A products’ list since the implementation of the 100% Santé healthcare reform ...
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CVI returns to growth in Q1, except for EMEA
CooperVision (CVI), the contact lenses’ division of Cooper Companies, started the 2021 fiscal year on a positive note with a return to growth after two consecutive quarters of declining sales. Total CVI quarterly revenues increased by 4 percent year-on-year to $507 million in reported terms, and by 1 percent in ...
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ArticleGentle Monster mixes eyewear with cosmetics, cakes and artworks in new retail format
Gentle Monster, the South-Korean brand of luxury eyewear which is famous for the unusual design of its stores that integrate large contemporary artworks and futuristic robots, unveiled at the end of last month its new multi-brand retail format in the Gangnam district of Seoul in the presence ...
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National Vision finds growth potential in a pandemic economy
National Vision, the U.S.-based optical retailer behind the America’s Best and Eyeglass World banners, registered a second consecutive quarter of double-digit increase in sales after big declines in the first half of the year due to the Covid-19 crisis impact. For its fourth quarter ended Jan. 2, the company booked ...
