All Corporate articles – Page 19
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ArticleInspecs takes over Norville’s manufacturing operations
(Update) Inspecs has bought the manufacturing operations of The Norville Group that was placed into administration after becoming insolvent. The assets were bought from the administrator, BDO LLP, for £2.4 million in cash (€2.6m-$3.0m). The acquisition includes £1.2 million (€1.3m-$1.5m) of freehold property for Norville’s Gloucester site and the remainder ...
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ArticleHow are retailers managing excess stock in Covid-19 times?
Managing stock has always been a tricky part of any business. But it becomes even more so when demand evaporates overnight as occurred with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns worldwide, prompting manufacturers and retailers to be nimble and explore various different solutions.
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News briefs
Kering to create testing laboratory in Tuscany
The French fashion group Kering is setting up a Test & Innovation Laboratory (TIL) in Prato, Tuscany. It will provide chemical and other tests on products and raw materials for apparel, leathergoods, footwear, eyewear, watches and jewelry. It is scheduled to start operating in the first half of 2021. TIL ...
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News briefs
GrandVision obtains extra funding, covenant relief for 2020
GrandVision has obtained an additional liquidity facility of €400 million as well as an amendment to its existing €1,200 million revolving credit facility (RCF), running to 2024, providing covenant relief for 2020. The additional liquidity facility is provided by five banks and will be available in the event the RCF ...
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ArticleRodenstock completes a €75 million capital increase
Rodenstock has obtained funds from its shareholders to finance its development while its business is recovering faster than expected from the coronavirus crisis.
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News briefs
Schneider to absorb Team H&K
Team Henrich & Krall, the manufacturer of optical equipment acquired by Germany’s Schneider Group in 2013, will merge into Schneider GmbH & Co. effective Oct. 1, 2020. Team H&K has been operating as an independent company but its operations were restructured after Jürgen Krall, its managing director and co-founder, left ...
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News briefs
Andy Wolf ramps up production
Andy Wolf Eyewear, the Austrian brand of designer eyewear, has told us that, to protect employees, it switched its production sites in Hartberg, Austria, and Jura, France, to emergency care in the first couple of weeks of the coronavirus lockdown. The company is now restarting operations step by step, setting ...
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Article
L’Amy gets protection from creditors
L’Amy, one of the oldest eyewear manufacturers in France, has requested and obtained bankruptcy protection from its creditors. Philippe Jeannerot, the court-appointed receiver, said it is waiting for the presentation of a restructuring program, but he denied a report that its shareholders may be looking for a new investor in ...
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Article
Cecop moves into North America
Cecop, the international buying group based in Madrid, has entered the Northern American market, acquiring 600 new retail members in the region through its takeover of the Combine Buying Group, an organization that provides various services to independent opticians. Based in New York, the American buying group previously belonged to ...
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Menicon completes expansion of disposable contact lens factory
Menicon has completed the extension of its production site in Kakamigahara, Japan, where it manufactures daily disposable contact lenses. The investment will enable the company to gradually increase production to over 500 million lenses from 90 million.
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Article
National Vision’s revenues collapse in March, refinances its debt
National Vision’s comparable store sales fell sharply in March as it temporarily closed stores due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The company is issuing a $350 million convertible note to refinance its debt.
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News briefs
Silhouette restarts production
On March 16, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the management board of Silhouette International ordered most of the company’s administrative staff to work from home, suspended production at the factory in the city of Linz and retained a skeleton staff for the dispatch warehouse. On April 27, with the ...
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Article
Michael Jardine’s Story
As we reported in our last issue, Michael Jardine is retiring as chief executive of Mondottica, the multi-brand company that he founded two decades ago. He has an interesting story about his experiences and future plans, as well as some very pertinent observations to make about the industry: Born ...
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News briefs
Shamir enters agreement for InoTime
Shamir has entered an exclusive agreement to provide its InoTime technology at the end of December to Paris Miki, a leading Japanese optical retail chain with 709 domestic stores. The service will enable Paris Miki to provide custom optical lenses within 24 hours. Shamir already offers the InoTime service in ...
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News briefs
Safilens reinforcing partnership with Oté Optics
Safilens, the Italian contact lens producer, is reinforcing its partnership with Oté Optics, the Dutch supplier of contact lens solutions. The companies’ research and development teams have been collaborating for 10 years, and the partnership will now expand to comprise manufacturing and sales. The companies will jointly develop new contact ...
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News briefs
Safilo closes factory
Safilo will close its manufacturing site located in Martignacco, in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, by the end of June, according to the website B2eyes. The company did not comment. The site employs 250 people.
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Article
New financing round for the expansion of Mister Spex
Mister Spex, which claims to be Europe’s leading online optician, completed another round of financing for over €15 million this month. The equity financing round was led by the Co-Investor Group, a firm that invests in medium-sized companies and maintains offices in Zurich, Frankfurt and Berlin. The new capital ...
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News briefs
Safilo's board proposes stock option plan
Safilo’s board of directors will ask shareholders to approve a new stock option plan running from 2020 to 2022 for up to seven million shares. It will be reserved for executive directors who are also employees of Safilo, and other employees of the group. The group added that Catherine Gérardin-Vautrin ...
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News briefs
Essilor suffers cyberattack
On March 21, EssilorLuxottica’s lens unit, Essilor, suffered a cyberattack that disrupted access to some servers and computers. The group said that it took immediate action to stop the computer virus from spreading, isolating some servers and installing new firewalls.
