All Japan articles
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Article
Zoff first public financial results show double-digit growth pace and higher margins
Reporting its financial results for the first time since its Initial Public Offering (IPO) last month, Japan-based retail group Zoff has announced a 11.8 percent year-on-year hike in revenue to 33.6 billion Japanese yen (€255.5m) for the first nine months of fiscal 2024. For the third quarter alone, total sales ...
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Japan optical retail market value inch up on cautious price hikes
The IOFT eyewear trade show, which took place in Tokyo from Oct. 15 to 17, was the opportunity for us to assess the dynamics of the Japanese eyewear market, in collaboration with Gankyo Publishing, a local B2B eyewear publisher and research company. The eyewear show itself was this year again ...
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Japanese optical retail chain goes public
Zoff, a Japanese retail chain with approximately 300 stores, went public earler this month. The company anticipates a 9 percent year-on-year revenue growth in 2024.
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News briefs
Ministerial gaffe puts Japanese eyewear brand in the spotlight
H-Fusion, a Japanese eyewear brand, is getting an unexpected and somewhat awkward publicity in the country after Shigeru Ishiba, the newly elected prime minister, sported one of its models at its inauguraul press conference, reportedly on the suggestion of his wife. The new eyeglasses would have probably remained largely unnoticed ...
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News briefs
EssilorLuxottica closes Washin’s acquisition
EssilorLuxottica has officially confirmed that it closed the acquisition of Japanese retail chain Washin, on which we reported in February already, following the approval of Japanese competition authorities. The Italo-French group said that this acquisition paved the way for further investments in Japan and would provide greater insights on the ...
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Paris Miki reports Q3 slowdown despite booming sunglass segment
Paris Miki has announced a 2.6 percent year-on-year increase in Q3 revenue to 12,689 million Japanese yen (€78 m), slowing down from the 8.7 percent growth reported for the previous quarter. The Japanese-based retailer’s quarterly revenue uptick was driven by its domestic market where sales rose by 2.8 percent to ...
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EssilorLuxottica acquires Japanese retail chain
EssilorLuxottica is about to deploy its full-scale vertical-integration business model in Japan. We have learned that the Italo-French group has acquired the business of Washin Optical, a Japanese mid-size optical retailer founded in 1951, through its Luxottica Japan subsidiary. The information has not been officially announced by the group yet, ...
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Store network upgrade, digitization and HR key to Paris Miki rebound
Like all well-established Japan retailers across all sectors, Paris Miki is facing an apparently unsolvable equation: finding sustainable growth in a country where the population is forecast to decline by approximately five percent every ten years. While many of these companies are heavily investing to develop their business abroad, particularly ...
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News briefs
Private equity fund takes over Megane Super owner
Japanese investment fund Nippon Investment Companies has acquired the business of Visionary Holdings, after a successful tender offer at the Tokyo Stock Exchange last month. Visionary Holdings is mostly known for its Megane Super chain of optical stores that boasts over 300 doors in Japan. The company also operates two ...
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JINS ends fiscal year on high note
Japanese-based retail group JINS has reported a 16.0 percent year-on-year increase in Q4 revenue to 19.7 billion Japanese yen (€125m), accelerating from the previous quarter when sales rose by 10.4 percent versus Q3 2022. The Q4 sales hike was driven by an 11.0 percent growth in domestic revenue to JPY ...
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JINS downgrades outlook, rethinks business model and supply chain
JINS HOLDINGS has downgraded its outlook for the current fiscal year ending next Aug. 31 after mixed results in the first half of the year, mostly due to lackluster sales on the Japan-based group’s domestic market. Sales in Japan grew by 2.4 percent year-on-year in H1 to 26,2 billion Japanese ...
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News briefs
Paris Miki up 5 % in Q3
Japanese retail group Paris Miki’s revenue increased by 4.9 percent year-on-year to 36.0 billion Japanese yen (€250m) in the third quarter of its 2023 year. For the first nine months, total sales were up by 7.0 percent versus 2022. Q3 revenue in Japan rose by 5.0 percent to ¥31.9 billion ...
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IOFT reopens for international business
Organizers of the IOFT show are getting ready to welcome back international visitors and exhibitors in Tokyo for the next edition of the event scheduled to take place from Oct. 18 to 20. Although the Japanese show was one of the very rare industry events that was not canceled during ...
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Paris Miki to invest €50m in 3-year turnaround plan
Paris Miki revenues inched up to 44.1 billion Japanese yen (€308m) in its fiscal year ended in March 2022, a 0.5 percent increase compared to the previous year. It is only the second time in the last decade that the retailer saw its sales go up year-on-year as the group’s ...
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JINS tests violet light for myopia management project
JINS, the Tokyo-based optical retail group, is about to launch the second stage of its clinical research on the suppression of myopia progression, in partnership with Tsubota Laboratory, a startup from Keio University, one of the top universities in the country. The project takes its roots in 2011 when JINS ...
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News briefs
About 200 exhibitors at IOFT 2021
The organizers of the IOFT optical trade show in Japan, RX Japan and the Fukui Optical Association, announced that 189 exhibitors took part in the last edition of the show from Oct. 18 to 20 in Tokyo. No attendance figures were communicated. Besides the Fukui-based eyewear makers, some international brands, ...
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News briefs
Paris Miki Q1 sales up y-o-y but still below pre-Covid levels
Paris Miki Holdings, the Japanese-based optical retailer, reported Q1 revenues of 10,376 million Japanese yen (€79.6m-$94.3m), representing a 28.5 percent increase from the same quarter in the previous year. However, the company’s topline has not returned to pre-Covid level as it reported ¥12,252 million (€93.9m-$111.3m) in Q1 2019. On a ...
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Luxottica opens new Japanese factory
Luxottica Japan announced last month the opening of a new state-of-the-art factory in Fukui, the country’s cluster of eyewear frames’ manufacturers. The investment follows the acquisition of a majority stake in Fukui Megane in 2018, one of the Italian group’s suppliers for titanium and solid gold frames ...
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News briefs
JINS’ eyewear sales up 4.5% in H1
JINS, the Japanese low-cost optical retailer, has reported a slight increase in H1 revenues to 31,634 million Japanese yen (€237.6m-$290.6m), or 0.4 percent higher than in H1 2020. Year-on-year, increases in eyewear sales of 4.0 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, in Japan and abroad during the first half of the ...
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News briefs
Paris Miki sales down 9% last year
Paris Miki Holdings, the Japanese-based optical retailer, reported Q4 revenues of 10,691 million Japanese yen (€80.3m-$98.2m), representing a slight 0.5 percent increase from Q4 2020. However, the partial recovery in the second half of the fiscal year could not offset the double-digit revenue drops in Q1 and Q2, leading the ...