All Article articles – Page 65
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Safilo sells the loss-making Solstice chain
Safilo has reached an agreement to sell its loss-making U.S. retail chain, Solstice, to Fairway LLC, a U.S. company formed by a group of undisclosed investors who are said to be active in optical retailing with about 10 stores in the U.S. and Europe.The price tag is $9 million, on a cash and ...
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Spain’s Hawkers continues to invest more offline
The fast-growing Spanish eyewear and accessories group has opened its seventh store in Madrid, in the Plenilunio shopping center, and announced plans to open five more stores next month in the Canary Islands as it pursues its strategy of complementing its online services with brick-and-mortar stores. Three of the stores ...
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Essilor continues striving to eliminate poor vision
Essilor and the Royal Government of Bhutan have officially launched a partnership to help eradicate poor vision in the small Asian country. The first step will consist in the delivery of 10,000 pairs of eyeglasses for use in a “Bhutan School Sight” program, organized by the Bhutan Ministry of Health.The ...
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Inspecs is due to go public
Inspecs has hired an investment broker, Peel Hunt, to advise it on an initial public offering that will possibly be held in the autumn. The transaction is still going through due diligence proceedings, but according to the British daily The Times, it could raise £60 million (€67.0m-$76.3m) and value the ...
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Safilo enjoys strong recovery in Ebitda
In the first quarter of 2019, Safilo posted a surprisingly strong recovery in profitability, indicating that the company is delivering on its pledge to cut costs. On a reported basis, the Ebitda, margin on revenues from continuing operations rose to 7.6 percent from 6.1 percent a year earlier. These other ...
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Steady growth and new investments at Eschenbach
The German eyewear and low-vision equipment manufacturer reported revenues of €144 million for 2018, an overall growth of 4 percent from the previous year, with a faster increase in the eyewear category. This confirms the regular progress made by Eschenbach in its revenues since it reached a level of €125 ...
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Mondottica expands its management
With many new licenses and acquisitions signed in the last few years, Mondottica's 66-year-old founder, chief executive and “chief dreamer,” Michael Jardine, has decided to delegate some of his responsibilities to new top managers now that his company has reached an annual turnover of close to $100 million. Additional appointments ...
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The German optical market grows by 2.2 percent
ZVA, the German's opticians' association, reports that the German optical retail market increased by an estimated 2.2 percent to €6.26 billion in 2017, as compared to the previous year. The number of spectacles sold went up by 0.8 percent to 12.84 million. Corrective lenses went up from 38.82 million to ...
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Hoya wants 20% of the lens market
In its latest quarterly report, which came out today, Hoya Corporation stated that it wants to raise its global market share in eyeglass lenses from the present rate of 17 percent to 20 percent over the medium term, mainly by gaining market share in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific regions.Hoya ...
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Essilux grows by 7.5%
Combining the sales results of Essilor International and of Luxottica on a pro forma basis for the first quarter ended on March 31, the new EssilorLuxottica group (Essilux) painted a generally positive picture of its situation across the world, with the possible exception of North America, and came out with ...
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Study highlights dramatic rise of myopia among children
The number of children around the world affected by myopia is expected to increase from an already worrying 300 million today to 500 million by 2050. The revised figure was presented at Sightgeist, the international conference on eye-care that took place in London on March 28, which gathered many stakeholders ...
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A French court appoints a mediator for Essilux
A Paris-based commercial court has appointed its former president, Frank Gentin, as special representative (mandataire ad hoc) to broker peace at the EssilorLuxottica (Essilux), which is bogged down in a power struggle between its executive chairman and main shareholder, Leonardo Del Vecchio, and its executive vice-chairman, Hubert Sagnières.We understand that ...
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Controversy drives out Etnia Barcelona’s CEO
Cristina Trujillo has left Etnia Barcelona, the Spanish optical brand. She had been the chief executive since December 2017. David Pellicer, who founded Etnia Barcelona in 2000 and ran it until Trujillo took charge, has taken over again in the leading role.According to various reports, Trujillo's departure seems to have ...
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Bausch + Lomb records high organic growth
Bausch Health posted first-quarter revenues for the Bausch + Lomb/International segment that were one percent higher than in the first quarter of last year, while on an organic basis, they jumped by 8 percent. The segment, which includes the group's contact lenses and solutions businesses, comprised about 55 percent of ...
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Good quarter and big plans for Fielmann
Marc Fielmann, who took over the reins at the big, eponymous German retail chain from his father a few months ago, has big plans for the company, particularly in the areas of digitalization and international expansion.He is expected to be more specific in August, when he will lay out the ...
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Fedon has higher losses, but core business performs well
Giorgio Fedon, the leading Italian producer of eyeglass cases, is changing strategy, down-scaling its diversification into small leathergoods. The company saw its net loss rise to €5 million in 2018 from €4 million a year earlier, due to lower sales and higher costs, but its core business of selling eyeglass ...
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Essilux launches search for a CEO
Amid the turmoil surrounding the group's governance, Essilux has initiated the search for its future chief executive with the appointment of two recruitment agencies, Russell Reynolds Associates and Eric Salmon & Partners. Russell will coordinate the process, which will involve internal and external candidates, with the view of appointing the ...
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One more new CEO for Italia Independent
Italia Independent has appointed Mario Pietribiasi as its new chief executive. Meanwhile, Lapo Elkann has been reconfirmed as the company's chairman. Pietribiasi replaces Giovanni Carlino, who has left the company “for personal reasons.” Pietribiasi has served since 2012 as managing director of Koru Eyewear, a private label producer that he ...
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A closer look at some geographies
The group's sales in North America advanced by only 1.2 percent in local currencies in the first quarter for several other reasons. Sales of lenses showed only modest improvement in the U.S., and they declined in Canada. Sales of frames and sunglasses were largely flat in volume. According to the ...
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Thema launches virtual reality store concept in the U.S.
Thema Optical presented its proprietary V.E.A. store concept in the U.S. at the latest Vision Expo East in New York, which was held on March 21-24. As previously reported by Eyewear Intelligence (Vol. 20 n°2+3 of 22/02/2019), V.E.A. stands for Virtual Eyewear Assistant. The V.E.A. store, entirely dedicated to customized eyewear, is ...
