Latest Headlines
-
ArticleGood 2022 results for Safilo, but Longarone plant's future uncertain
While showing positive results for 2022, with increases in both revenue and margins, the statement released by the Safilo Group yesterday (Jan. 26) raised concerns about the future of its Longarone plant and its 500 employees. In the opening remarks of its financial announcement, Safilo said that its board of ...
-
Article
Brits cutting back on eye care, surveys show
A new survey by Specsavers among 2,000 U.K. adults showed that, while 73 percent of respondents wanted to prioritize their health in 2023, 11 percent declared that this would be impossible due to the cost-of-living crisis. Researchers also found that eye care was one of the first healthcare priorities to ...
-
Article
Johnson & Johnson Q4 CL sales grow 7.7% at constant fx
Johnson & Johnson’s global sales of contact lenses in the fourth quarter decreased by a reported 0.2 percent to $831 million as currency headwinds hit the top line. Sales at constant currency rates instead jumped by 7.7 percent, as the company highlighted the strong performance of its Acuvue Oasys 1-Day ...
-
Article
Synsam details roadmap to mid-term financial targets
During its Capital Markets Day held on Jan. 30 at one of its flaship store in Stockholm, Nordics’ leading retailer Synsam Group confirmed its medium-term financial targets and disclosed more information and figures on how it would achieve them. The presentation took place as the group’s share price lost about ...
-
Article
Top management changes at Rodenstock Group
The Rodenstock Group successively announced in the last two days the appointment of a new CEO for the group and of a new general manager for its optoVision subsidiary. Following the decision of current CEO Anders Hedegaard to step down, Rodenstock has appointed Marcus Desimoni to replace him, effective Feb. ...
-
Article
Innovative Eyewear and ABG partner in smart audio glasses
Innovative Eyewear, a U.S.-based company specializing on smart eyewear with embedded audio technology, announced at the end of 2022 the signature of a new multi-year global license agreement to develop and market smart glasses under the Eddie Bauer brand. The first range is slated for launch in the course of ...
-
Article
TCL and others unveil new smart glasses at the CES show
According to research company Market Research Future, the market for AR and VR smart glasses is expected to grow at an annual average of 13.5 percent until 2030, reaching $26 billion for the 2022-2030 period. Aside from tech giants such as Google, Apple, and Meta, which recently acquired 3D-printed ophthalmic ...
-
Article
German optical associations release new market data at opti
Ahead of the opening of the opti trade show in Munich today, industry association Spectaris announced that, based on its preliminary calculations, sales from German-based suppliers of ophthalmic optics and consumer optics reached a total of €4.87 million for 2022, up by 2.5 percent from 2021. The growth was entirely ...
-
Article
Product carbon footprint, circularity and 3D print on Ace & Tate sustainability agenda
Dutch-based eyewear brand Ace & Tate will launch its first 3D-printed collection with a short range of sports glasses, we learned in an interview with Femme van Gils, sustainability manager, and Sean Peron, vice president of marketing and brand. The collection will be based on Arkema’s Polyamide 11, a polymer ...
-
Article
The Vision Council sees a much bigger but flat U.S. market for 2022
The Vision Council has changed its view of the U.S. optical industry, after a revamping of its statistical methods, and has just published a retitled annual survey: the Market inSights Report. Available free of charge to the Council’s members, the report estimates data for product categories, market divisions and the ...
-
Article
Industry top 5 average stocks' value up 11 % in Q4
Stock prices of public companies in the eyewear sector have confirmed their recovery in the last quarter of 2022, as the average value inched up by 0.3 percent in the period on a non-weighted basis. It is the first time that our quarterly chart shows an improvement in average value ...
-
Article
Specsavers owners place company in family trust
Specsavers’ owners and co-founders Dame Mary Perkins and her husband Doug have announced that they had placed the company in a family trust in order to protect it from a potential acquisition by private equity funds in the future. “We are coming up to our 80th birthdays so we have ...
-
Article
A look at the year ahead
A year ago, things were looking brighter, or so it seemed, and one could have described the general eyewear industry mood as “cautiously optimistic.” After the initial COVID-19 shock in 2020, business conditions progressively returned to normal in all main optical markets, to the exception of China and other Asian ...
-
Article
Meta acquires 3D-printed ophthalmic lens company Luxexcel
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has discretely acquired Luxexcel, the supplier of 3D-printed prescription lenses, at the end of last year in a strategic move certainly aimed at enhancing the tech giant’s virtual reality (VR) portfolio. No official announcement was released by Meta but the investment, which ...
-
Article
Afflelou up 2.1% in Q1 with return to growth in France
The Afflelou group has posted a 2.1 percent year-on-year increase in network sales to €213 million for the first quarter of its 2022 financial year, ended on Oct. 31, with growth in all its markets in spite of the troubled macroeconomic environment. On a like-for-like basis, sales were up by ...
-
Article
Fielmann expands Spanish business with new acquisition
The Fielmann Group is strengthening its presence in the Spanish market through the full acquisition of the retail, wholesale and manufacturing businesses of MFI Group, a leading optical and hearing-aid supplier in northern Spain. The transaction will be completed on Dec. 31, 2022. The investment comes after the takeover in ...
-
Article
Exports jump and new projects for Italian eyewear but ANFAO warns of looming crisis
On the occasion of its annual general meeting last week, the Italian eyewear industry association ANFAO delivered positive interim export figures for 2022 and announced two new initiatives related to feminine empowerment and innovation in the industry. As reflected in our tables below, exports of Italian eyewear increased by 22 ...
-
Article
Downsized opti to focus on myopia management and sustainability
Opti organizers have had to reduce the exhibition space of their next edition of the show, scheduled to take place from next January 13 to 15 in Munich, after being faced with a wave of cancelations from several large eyewear industry players and usual exhibitors. Initially planned on four halls ...
-
Article
Zeiss Vision Care up double digits in 2021/22
Zeiss Vision Care, the main business unit within the Consumer Markets segment of the ZEISS Group, has reported a double-digit increase in revenue at constant exchange rates for its 2021/22 fiscal year, ended Sept. 30, compared to the previous year, with market share gains in all regions. The company does ...
-
Article
De Rigo to acquire Rodenstock eyewear division
De Rigo Vision has announced the signature of an agreement to acquire the full ownership of Rodenstock’s eyewear division, a transaction that is scheduled to be completed at the end of second quarter of 2023. The amount of the acquisition was not disclosed. The family-owned Italian group said the investment ...
