Pierre-Marie Bernard
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- Article
Thirteen eyewear frames received an IF DESIGN 2024 award
IF Design Foundation (IF), the German-based organization behind the international IF DESIGN AWARDS has released the list of award winners for 2024, ahead of the ceremony scheduled for April 29 in Berlin. The IF jury reviews designs submitted by companies across nine disciplines (product, packaging, communication, …) and 81 product ...
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Fielmann banks on US business and vision care services for mid-term growth
The final annual results for fiscal 2023 released yesterday by Fielmann Group confirm all preliminary results announced in February, notably the double-digit increase in external sales and consolidated sales versus 2022 and a significant rebound in profitability (see table below). Please refer to our previous report for more details on ...
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Fielmann sales up double digit in Q1 as US business integration offset European slowdown
Along with its complete annual results for fiscal 2023, on which we will report in a separate article, Fielmann Group has announced a 10.8 percent year-on-year increase in Q1 consolidated sales to €529.1 million. Ebitda margin for the quarter remained stable versus Q1 2023, at 21.7 percent.
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Hinge specialist OBE Präzision adds Vietnam to industrial base, invests in smart eyewear and 3D printing
On the heels of the group’s investment in Italy, where it acquired OMM, a supplier of metal components for high-end eyewear manufacturers, we sat down with Erik Schäfer, CEO of OBE Holdings, mother company of hinge specialist OBE Präzision.
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New owner for Nexeye retail group
Global investment firm KKR will become the new majority shareholder of Nexeye, the Dutch-based retail group operating the Hans Anders, Eyes + More and Direkt Optik chains, acquiring it from 3i, another investment fund that owned the company since 2017. The agreement is subject to regulatory approval, but it does ...
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Kering Eyewear stands out with 8% Q1 revenue hike as group topline slips
As in the last quarter of 2023, Kering Eyewear was the only business unit of French luxury group Kering that reported a revenue increase in Q1 2024 as reported sales of optical frames and sunglasses rose by 7 percent year-on-year to €463 million.
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US sun business sole exception to EssilorLuxottica’s smooth sailing in Q1
EssilorLuxottica remained on a smooth sailing trajectory in the start of 2024 as the group reported a 3.0 percent year-on-year increase in Q1 revenue to €6,335 million. At constant rates, sales progressed by 5.5 percent versus 2022, decelerating slightly from Q4 2023 (+7.1 percent) but remaining in line with the ...
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Inspecs posts flattish 2023 sales after Q4 drop, but profit ratios improved
UK-based Inspecs Group has reported a 1.2 percent increase in annual revenue to £203.3 million (€237.4m) for fiscal 2023, corresponding to a topline flat performance at constant exchange rates, after the company’s business slowed down sharply in the last months of the year. However, the company managed to report significant ...
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Vuzix losses pile up as AR smart glasses take-off takes its time
After a last-minute postponement at the end of March of its annual results presentation, smart eyewear manufacturer Vuzix reported earlier this week a severe drop in Q4 revenue and a significant increase in losses for fiscal 2023. While the management stressed that investments in manufacturing and product development have led ...
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US startup picks eyewear market as launch pad for infinitely recyclable plastic material
As the world is grappling with an ever-growing amount of plastic waste, of which less than 10 percent is being recycled, our attention was brought to a California-based chemical start-up that claims it can produce an infinitely recyclable alternative material to high performance plastics. And, somewhat surprisingly for such a ...
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Slight average eyewear stocks price hike in Q1 reflects extreme ups and downs
The average stock price of public eyewear companies inched up by 1.6 percent on a non-weighted basis during the first quarter of 2024, slowing down from the 8.4 percent growth calculated for Q4 2023. The Q1 2024 performance also fell short of the 8.1 percent quarter-on-quarter growth of the MSCI ...
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Hoya production and order systems greatly affected by cyberattack
Please click here for the most recent update on this news.
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New management structure and increased retail focus for MPG
Following the death at the end of 2023 of Dr. Michael Pachleitner, its founder and CEO, the eponymous MPG (Michael Pachleitner Group) is entering a new era of its history with a new management structure and a strategic focus on the development of its retail business unit. We sat down ...
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Two top-ten German optical retailers join forces to take over Edel-Optics
Optiker Bode and ROTTLER, two family-owned and historical optical retail chains respectively based in Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, are joining forces to take over Edel-Optics, an online optical retail pionneer in both Germany and Europe. Founded in 2009, the company had filed for insolvency proceedings in February.
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Sales and profit up double digits for Conant Optical in 2023
Chinese lens manufacturer Conant Optical has reported a 12.7 percent year-on-year increase in annual revenue to RMB 1,760 million (€226m) for fiscal 2023, slightly accelerating from its performance in H1. Although the growth in the first half of the year was almost entirely due to price-mix improvements, an uptick in ...
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Product mix drives growth and profitability gains for Mister Spex as customer base stagnates
Mister Spex ended fiscal 2023 on a positive note as total Q4 revenue increased by 7.4 percent year-on-year to €46.7 million, significantly accelerating from the 2.4 percent growth reported for the previous quarter. Reflecting the company’s strategic focus on its domestic market since the end of 2022, the quarterly revenue ...
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Retail expansion, price hikes and inbound tourism boosted JEH top and bottom lines in fiscal 2024
Japan Eyewear Holdings (JEH), the company behind the Kaneko Optical and 999.9 brands, has reported a 22.2 percent year-on-year increase in revenue to 2,623 million Japanese yen (€16.0m) for the last quarter of its fiscal year ended last Jan. 31. Although this marked a deceleration from the 33.6 percent growth ...
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Afflelou maintains mid-single digit topline growth in Q2, gained market shares in 2023
The Afflelou Group has reported a 5.5 percent year-on-year increase in network sales for the second quarter of its 2024 fiscal year ended Jan. 31, in line with the growth pace reported in the previous quarter. Quarterly sales rose to €231.1 million driven by Afflelou’s two key countries, France and ...
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New owner for Horizons Optical
Oakley Capital, a London-based private equity investor focusing on mid-sized companies, has announced its acquisition of a majority share in Horizons Optical, the Spanish-based supplier of software and equipment for the production of customized ophthalmic lenses. Horizons Optical, which was originally the R&D division Indo Optical was spun off from ...
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Organic growth and network expansion fuel Krys Group momentum
KRYS GROUP claims that it consolidated its market leadership in France last year as solid organic growth and the “exceptional” expansion of its retail footprint enabled the company to outperform the French optical market growth (+5.5 percent according to GFK) by three percentage points. Total network sales in the country ...