The Spanish group improved its gross margins by 0.5 percentage points in the six months ended June 30 and its total revenues increased by 2.6 percent to €65,193,000, but higher charges for personnel layoffs and technological investments caused a decline in the pre-tax profit to €1,551,980, or €626,000 less than in the year-ago period.

INDO's sales of lenses rose by 3.5 percent and those of equipment by 4 percent, but those of frames fell by 7 percent. Its foreign sales grew by 6 percent, representing 24.6 percent of the total turnover, with increases of 5 percent in Germany, 9 percent in France and 25 percent in Portugal. Domestic revenues increased by 1.5 percent, outperforming the Spanish market, where a decline in INDO's sales of unbranded frames was offset by higher sales of branded products.

The company's INDOnet service is now available also in France and Portugal, as well as in Spain, and there are plans to introduce it also in English-speaking markets in the near future. It's an ordering system for its own lenses that is fully embarked on the internet. It allows opticians to order lenses that are already beveled and drilled and ready for framing, using a vast library of rimless frames supplied by the best makers.

Meanwhile, INDO has further raised from 50.1 to 80.68 percent its equity in Diamonex CB Medical, an Italian supplier of lenses and optical machinery with which it has been working for a while. INDO has fully covered an equity increase of €465,800 for Diamonex, whose sales grew by 21 percent in the first 8 months of this year.