All Article articles – Page 98
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Essilor buys Fabris Lane, boosting its sun activities further
Essilor has made two new important acquisitions during the first quarter in the U.K. and Turkey as part of its program to expand its growing sun segment. It signed an agreement to buy a majority stake in Merve, a Turkish producer based in Istanbul that owns two well-known local brands ...
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U.S. Optical Barometer increased in March, after a slight decline in February
The Optical Business Barometer (OBB), a monthly survey designed to gauge business attitudes among independent eye care professionals in the U.S., showed an increase in March 2015 to 3.84 from a February 2015 rating of 3.81. March ratings stood at 3.72 for 2014 and 3.84 for 2013. In February 2015, ...
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Mixed results for Alcon
Sales declined by 3 percent to $2.55 billion at Alcon, the subsidiary of Novartis that comprises Ciba Vision's former contact lens business. They grew by 5 percent on a currency-neutral basis, led by continued increases in surgical products and ophthalmic pharmaceuticalsAlcon's Vision Care Performance segment, which includes contact lenses and ...
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Eye Like works with Kirk & Kirk for its first private label line
Kirk & Kirk, the new company of Jason and Karen Kirk, has developed the first private label collection for Eye Like, an interesting “club” of trendy, independent opticians in France who have been working together more or less informally for 15 years.The basic and contemporary collection, which was launched a ...
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A new and bigger board for Luxottica
The annual shareholders' meeting of Luxottica Group has elected a new board of directors, headed up by Leonardo Del Vecchio and composed of 14 members, to a three-year term, replacing the former nine-member board. A long-time executive of the group, Luigi Francavilla, was made deputy chairman.The new members include the ...
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Customers expect more from their optician
Opticians are appreciated by more than 80 percent of European customers for their technical competences, but they don't seem to be as attentive and receptive to the clients' requests in Germany and the U.K. as compared to other major markets. Purchasing trends in these two countries tend to diverge from ...
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Günther Fielmann delegates some responsibilities
Fielmann continued to make progress in the first quarter of 2015, raising its consolidated sales by 3.5 percent to €317.1 million from the relatively high level of the year-earlier period, with growth of 2.9 percent on a same-store basis. Net income increased by 6.0 percent to €44.5 million. The supervisory ...
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A strong quarter for Essilor
The strength of the dollar helped to boost the reported revenues of Essilor International by 25.4 percent to €1,659 million in the first quarter. On a comparable basis, they went up by 4.0 percent, as changes in the scope of consolidation and currencies boosted the top line by 8.7 and ...
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An integrated sun lens offer by Essilor
Essilor has set up a new business unit, Essilor Sun Solution, offering a vast range of plano and prescription sun lenses produced in partnership by BNL Eurolens and Intercast Europe. Both companies are leading players in the sun lens market that belong to the Essilor group.Presented at the recent Mido show ...
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Safilo’s quarterly sales lifted by a weak euro
Like many other European companies with big operations overseas, Safilo is benefiting from the weakening of the euro against the U.S. dollar. In the first quarter, the group's sales rose by 10.6 percent to €324.3 million. But at constant currency rates, the top line only rose by 0.8 percent, in ...
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Kering Eyewear will start up in July
The new company established by Kering to manage the eyewear lines of its 22 fashion, sports and lifestyle brands will make a start on July 1 with nine of them and with a team of experienced professionals, many of whom come from Safilo.Four of the nine Kering brands - Bottega ...
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Fedon resumes sales growth
Sales are growing again for Giorgio Fedon & Figli after their poor performance in recent years. Italy's leading producer of eyewear cases, which has been diversifying into leathergoods, closed its 2014 fiscal year with revenues up by 3.6 percent to €62.6 million.However, a look at the company's profitability tells another ...
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Spy improves results
The American company reported yesterday a 0.7 percent drop in revenues to $9,131,000 for the first quarter, with lower sales of sunglasses partially offset by higher sales of snow goggles and prescription frames. The management blamed the ongoing contraction of the action sports retail sector and added that the business ...
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Luxottica integrates Oakley
Luxottica has started the integration of Oakley, the Californian brand that it bought in 2007, by merging its wholesale team into its own operations. The move, which we had already mentioned in our last issue, is the first of a “series of integration moves” scheduled in the coming weeks to ...
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Marchon gets close to $1 billion
Marchon Eyewear is almost certain to reach the milestone of one billion dollars in sales this year, further consolidating its position as the third-largest player in the global market for prescription frames and sunglasses. It would have broken the $1 billion barrier in 2014 if the dollar had not appreciated ...
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Luxottica aims to double sales to €15 billion in 10 years
Luxottica aims to double its revenues to some €15 billion in 10 years' times through organic and external growth. The new management, which is currently working on the company's business plan for the coming five years, unveiled some of its assumptions while commenting on the group's 2014 results.The company believes ...
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Sales should rise by 8-10% at Ray-Ban and Oakley this year
Luxottica expects its home brands Ray-Ban and Oakley to each boost sales by 8-10 percent this year. The company noted that Oakley is a $1 billion brand in the U.S., the same size as Ray-Ban, but remains “very underdeveloped” in the rest of the world. While brand awareness for Oakley ...
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Luxottica's STARS scheme is now covering 10% of its wholesale business
Luxottica has extended its automatic replenishment system, STARS, to cover about 10 percent of the group's wholesale business, and the company is targeting 20 percent coverage in three years' time. The company claims that the system can lift store sales by about 20 percent and cut inventories by a quarter.Before ...
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Luxottica proposes a super-dividend on strong 2014 results
Luxottica's board of directors is proposing to the general assembly a doubling in its dividend payments on its results for 2014, which show an increase of 18.4 percent in the reported attributable net profit to €642.6 million. On an adjusted basis, it increased by 11.4 percent to €687.4 million.Under the ...
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Luxottica sees European sales going up by 5-7% in 2015
Luxottica expects its sales in Europe to accelerate in 2015, rising by 5-7 percent at constant currency rates, against growth of 4.6 percent in 2014. In a conference call with analysts, the new joint chief executive of the group in charge of markets, Adil Mehboob-Khan, said with a couple of ...
