Latest Headlines – Page 124
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FittingBox partners with Eyefinity Europe
FittingBox and Eyefinity Europe have announced the signing of a strategic agreement focused on the development and commercialization of innovative services for optical professionals. FittingBox designs technologies that enable users to try on glasses virtually. By uploading a picture, or by using a webcam, users can see themselves in real ...
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Native’s growth was hampered by supply chain issues
The Native brand of sunglasses will see flat sales this year due to problems with its supply chain. A.T. Cross, the parent company that acquired Native in 2008, said that the demand in the second quarter for the new Odyssey line, aimed at mountain athletes, was not properly anticipated, resulting ...
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Guy Charlot passes away, after grouping the French eyewear sector
Guy Charlot, who was instrumental in federating the French industry and in building up the Silmo trade show, died of cancer on July 24, shortly before reaching the venerable age of 86 years. In spite of his age, he remained very active until the month of June, participating in many ...
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Good figures from Specsavers
Specsavers pursued its double-digit sales growth in the latest financial year, ended in February. The big international optical retail group reported a few days ago a 10.9 percent increase to £1.7 billion (€2.12bn-$2.65bn) worldwide, after booking a 10.3 percent in the previous year to £1.5 billion.Sales grew by 4.4 percent ...
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Walgreens invests in Boots Opticians’ parent
Boasting a 1.6 percent sales increase on a comparable store basis, Boots Opticians has reported a turnover of £332 million (€414.4m-$518.0m) for the past fiscal year, ended on March 31. Good conversion figures were recorded in the stores, even though average transactions were down.The chain's operating profits increased, thanks to ...
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Atol helps young practitioners
Atol, the fourth-largest French buying group in the sector is accelerating the opening of new stores through a program, called “Archipel” (archipelago), that helps young optometrists finance the establishment of their own practices, especially in shopping centers. The 11th Archipel store is set to open shortly and five others are ...
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Safilo reduces job cuts while Luxottica signs Armani deal
Safilo has reached an agreement with the unions to limit the number of job cuts in Italy stemming from the loss of the Armani licenses to Luxottica. Safilo had estimated that it would have to eliminate 1,000 jobs among its permanent staff, but the number has been reduced to 670. ...
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Immagine acquired by Area investor
Immagine, the Italian company that produces X-Ide and Rye & Lye eyewear, has new ownership. Susy Tabacchi and her family have sold their shares to a businessman based in Udine, Giovanni Torossi, who has taken over as chairman and chief executive. The company now has capital of €50,000, financed entirely ...
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Allison has a new license, Trudi, renews others
Allison has added a 50-year-old Italian brand of soft toys, dolls and other children's products to its portfolio, called Trudi. The Italian manufacturer has signed a five-year agreement with Trudi for the production and distribution of children's eyewear worldwide. It could not be determined where the glasses will be manufactured.Due ...
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Black Diamond buys Poc Sweden
Black Diamond Inc., an American group in the outdoor and ski sector, has sealed an agreement to take over Poc Sweden, a company that has grown rapidly in the last years with its distinctive ski helmets and other protective gear, ahead of a more recent diversification of its well-designed product ...
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1-800-CONTACTS has a new owner
WellPoint's acquisition of 1-800-CONTACTS was completed on June 20, earlier than expected. 1-800-CONTACTS and its sister site, Glasses.com, serve about 3.3 million customers in the U.S.,. They claims to represent together the largest direct-to-consumer retailer of contact lenses in the country.WellPoint says the two companies have complementary capabilities and assets, ...
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Coastal Contacts enters Brazil
After entering the Scandinavian and British markets, Coastal Contacts, the Vancouver-based online optical retailer, has started up a Brazilian website to sell its contact lenses, eyeglasses and sunglasses in the South American country. To better serve the customers there, Coastal is also planning to open a distribution center in Brazil.The ...
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CooperVision continues to outperform the market
CooperVision's sales grew by 5 percent to $288.0 million in the second quarter ended April 30, up by 6 percent in local currencies. In three categories that represent 61 percent of the company's turnover – multifocal, toric and single-use spherical lenses – its revenues increased by 12 percent, double the ...
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European contact lens wearers upgrade
Sales of multifocal contact lenses grew by 7 percent in value in the optical retail stores of the five major European countries during the 12-month period ended last April, according to the monthly census conducted by GfK through its retail panel, but they still represented only 5.8 percent of the ...
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Top Vision Group recovers from a fire
The Dutch supplier of store displays for optical frames and sunglasses, which counts some 3,000 optical retail stores all over Europe among its clients, suffered a big fire that completely destroyed its headquarters, factory and warehouse on May 12. None of its 30 employees were injured in the accident, which ...
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Italy’s Optovista supports opticians hit by the earthquake
Optovista, an Italian supplier of ophthalmic lenses, has announced that it will take practical measures to help optometrists in the Northern Italian region of Emilia, following the earthquake that repeatedly hit the area between the end of May and the beginning of June.Optovista is based in Calderara di Reno, a ...
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New eyewear show to be held in London
Optrafair, the British eyewear show held every other year in Birmingham, is getting fresh competition from a new event called The Eye Show, which is scheduled to run on Feb. 12-14, 2013, in the ExCel exhibition and conference center of London.Dawn Kime, who has 22 years of experience organizing similar ...
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Carl Zeiss Vision gets interactive
Having redesigned its presence on the internet, Carl Zeiss Vision relaunched its website on May 7. Aside from a new look and structure, it offers new content, addressing existing and potential clients at the retail level and among the general public.Opticians get an innovative form of sales support. Those who ...
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Ten years of restructuring for South Korea’s optical industry
We complete our focus on South Korea (Eyewear Intelligence Vol. 13, No. 8+9) with some official industry statistics that we have obtained since our last issue. One concerns the exceptional 70 percent growth in the country's exports of ophthalmic optic products between 2005 and 2010, from $282 million to $479 ...
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Lion Capital in line to control Alain Afflelou
Lion Capital, an international private equity firm, is the likely the become future controlling shareholder of Alain Afflelou. The current owner of the big French-based chain of franchised optical stores, Bridgepoint Capital, has granted Lion a period of exclusivity to come up with a definitive purchase agreement.According to reports, the ...
