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Essilux posts solid Q2 results, answers questions on Supreme, Meta
EssilorLuxottica has posted solid results for the first six months of 2024 with a continued mid-single-digit revenue progression in Q2, which was almost an exact duplicate of the Q1 performance, and gross and operating margin expansions. We cover the results in more detail in the second part of this article. ...
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Kering Eyewear outperforms group in both revenue growth and profitability in H1
Kering Eyewear sales in Q2 2024 grew by 3.4 percent year-on-year to €451 million, slowing down from the 6.9 percent growth rate reported for the first quarter of the year. For the first six months of 2024, the eyewear unit of French luxury group Kering reported a 6.0 percent uptick ...
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Mister Spex founder and CEO steps down, former Luxottica manager takes key role
Effective July 31, 2024, Dirk Graber, founder of German-based retail group Mister Spex, is stepping down from his role as CEO of the company after the supervisory board accepted his request to be relieved from his duties. The announcement, which comes only a few months after the departure of former ...
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Meta reportedly in discussion to take a 5% stake in Essilux
On the day following the announcement of streetwear brand Supreme by EssilorLuxottica, both the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Meta was in talks to acquire a 5 percent stake in the Italo-French eyewear group. The news sent EssilorLuxottica’s share price back up after a 4.5 ...
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Essilux mixes med-tech and streetwear in shopping basket
“As you understood, we love our origins a lot, based on frames and lenses, but the company is now taking a slightly different direction,” said Francesco Milleri, CEO of EssilorLuxottica at the group’s shareholders’ assembly in April, replying to a question related to the potential acquisition of Marcolin. This was ...
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A majority of stock listed eyewear companies saw their share value decline in Q2
Stock listed eyewear companies have seen their share value increase by 4.3 percent on a non-weighted average basis in the second quarter of 2024, improving slightly from the 1.6 percent increase observed in Q1. The industry average outperformed the MSCI World Index, which includes 1,500 companies worldwide and grew by ...
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The new reality of the Russian eyewear market
Over the last few years, the Russian eyewear market has experienced a rollercoaster ride, with occasional supply disruptions, price swings, growing dependence on China and a rise in the share of counterfeit goods and “grey imports.” The Russian eyewear market has nearly doubled between 2017 and 2021, a study by ...
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Private equity fund about to invest in Lunettes Pour Tous
Quilvest Capital Partners, a global investment fund with over $7 billion in assets under management, is in advanced talks for the acquisition of a significant share in French-based optical retail group Lunettes Pour Tous, according to a recent article by L’Informé, a French independent business news website. This followed an ...
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Fielmann posts double-digit sales increase and higher profit ratios in H1
On the morning of its annual general meeting on July 11, Fielmann Group has reported strong preliminary results for the first half of the current fiscal year. External sales increased by 12 percent year-on-year to €1.1 billion in H1 2024, confirming the double-digit growth already reported for Q1. International ...
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Brazilian optical retail market value up 5 % in 2023
The Brazilian optical retail market value grew by 4.9 percent year-on-year to 25.6 billion reais (€4.4bn) in 2023 according to the annual report by Abióptica. The data was calculated based on a survey by Cielo, a credit card service company, at optical stores. It does not include online sales. Founded ...
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Zuckerberg on smartglasses and AI
As late as a year and a half ago, Mark Zuckerberg believed that smart glasses would need to boast full holographic augmented reality (AR) before they could replace the smartphone as “the main platform that people would use.” He no longer believes this, as he has explained in a 40-minute ...
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Multiópticas changes its corporate structure
The Spanish chain Multiópticas is making the transition from cooperative to limited company, according to Modaes. The decision came down at its general meeting, held on June 26, and is intended to consolidate its domestic and foreign distribution network. Members of the cooperative will henceforth be partners. Multiópticas was founded ...
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Double-digit growth puts Specsavers above the £4 bn annual revenue mark
Publishing its annual business review for its fiscal year ended Feb. 29, 2024, Specsavers has reported group revenue of £4.01 billion, up by 10.3 percent year-on-year at constant exchange rates. This marks a strong improvement from the previous fiscal year when sales were up by 5.6 percent. The performance also ...
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SILMO Paris invites ECPs to grasp new technologies and reinvent the shop experience
Organizers of SILMO Paris have announced that over 900 companies, representing 1,500 brands and 144 countries, would exhibit their products and services at the next edition of the show, in line with participation numbers from Silmo 2023. The event will take place from Sept. 20 to 23 at the usual ...
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Afflelou sales up 5 percent in Q3
The Afflelou Group has reported a 5.5 percent year-on-year increase in network sales to €229.4 million for the third quarter of its current fiscal year, ended April 30, in line with its growth pace in the previous quarter. For the first nine months of the financial year, sales were up ...
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Backed by new investor, Vision Group aims for more acquisitions
London-based alternative asset manager ICG has agreed to purchase a 49.4 percent stake in the leading Italian eyewear retailer Vision Group as part of a management buyout, acquiring the roughly 46 percent stake held by former private equity group backer Arcadia along with shares from other unnamed investors. ICG will ...
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Kirk & Kirk turns to crowfunding for marketing budget boost
Kirk & Kirk is about to complete a crowdfunding campaign for £150,000 (€177,000) by selling approximately 7 percent of company shares on Crowdcube, a crowdfunding platform focusing on European start-ups. Jason Kirk, CEO, and Karen Kirk, Creative Director, each hold 36 percent of the family business. At the date of ...
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Google takes a seat at AR Alliance’s board, alongside Meta, Essilux and others
The AR Alliance, an international body regrouping companies and organizations in the augmented reality hardware sector, has announced that Google has become a new founding member of the association, taking a seat at its board of directors. The announcement seems to give more substance to speculations that the high-tech giant ...
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Essilor, MicroOLED developing AR, with EU help
A consortium led by Essilor International has obtained about €6.7 million from an EU funding scheme (Horizon Research and Innovation Actions) for a project called POPULAR, scheduled to run from Jan. 1, 2024, to Dec. 31, 2026. The name stands for Prescription Optics Providing a Universal Lens for Augmented Reality, ...