Latest Headlines – Page 128
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U.S. market recovery is evident
VisionWatch, the ongoing research survey conducted in the U.S. by The Vision Council, has found that all vision care products and services generated 3 percent more revenues in 2011, at $32.8 billion. Sales of frames and lenses each went up less than 1 percent by volume, but by value they ...
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Vision Expo East welcomes France, and everyone else
International Vision Expo & Conference, being held March 22-25, is bringing some French flair to New York. The French Loft will make its debut at the show, showcasing the latest in French design. It will be located on Level 4 of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the show having ...
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Virtual Lens Express will produce Sharper Image lenses
Virtual Lens Express, an American lens manufacturer based in Florida, has signed a licensing agreement with Sharper Image for the production and sale of its ophthalmic lenses, prescription eyewear and sun eyewear (RX and plano). The license will start up in March 2015, and will cover the U.S. and Canada. ...
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Luxottica books higher-than-expected sales
Luxottica beat market expectations by reporting a 12.1 percent increase in fourth-quarter sales to €1,509 million ina preliminary statement yesterday. On a similar currency basis, turnover rose by 11.2 percent. Revenues were driven by the group's operations in North America and emerging markets. Market expectations were for quarterly sales to ...
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Luxottica extends working hours at Italian distribution center
Luxottica has reached an agreement with 600 workers and trade unions to extend the opening hours of its Italian distribution center in Sedico to 5 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The center was previously operational from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. With the new organization, the staff will work seven and ...
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New licenses for Marchon and L’Amy
Under a new licensing agreement, Marchon will manufacture and distribute sun and ophthalmic eyewear for Chloé, one of the luxury fashion brands of the Richemont group. The first products from the new partnership will hit Chloé boutiques and department, specialty and optical stores in September.Marchon takes over the license from ...
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Hoya is quickly healing its wounds
Several important European clients – especially big optical retail chains and buying groups – have completely suspended all relations with Hoya, waiting for its operations to become normal again before placing orders with the Japanese company, whose facilities in Thailand have been idled by floodwaters since last October. Other clients ...
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Essilor expands on four continents
Essilor International has announced new acquisitions in seven countries over the past few days. Notably, it reported today two partnerships agreements in China that will represent additional combined annual revenues of about €22 million. The French giant has acquired a majority stake in Jiangsu Youli Optics Co., a manufacturer of ...
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Italy: Optical Master Club joins Vision Group
Vision Group has acquired Optical Master Club (OMC), another Italian group of opticians with some 100 members in various regions, but mainly in the center of Italy. The acquisition takes Vision Group practically to a total of 1,500 members.The deal is that Vision Group will acquire shares in Optical Master ...
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Slightly decreasing sales in Germany
Thomas Truckenbrod, president of the German opticians' association, ZVA, reported at the Opti '12 trade show in Munich that the German ophthalmic optics market recorded an increase in sales of about 2 percent in 2011, but with a decline of about 1.5 percent in the number of frames sold in ...
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2011 was a little worse than 2010 in Germany
The 2011 drop followed an unsatisfactory fourth quarter in 2010. Last year's sales decline was disappointing for most companies, as a year ago everybody was expecting to benefit from the generally positive consumer sentiment in Germany. The German ophthalmic optics industry's total sales rose by 2.3 percent in 2010 ...
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Opti ’12 welcomed international newcomers
About 23,000 trade and business professionals visited the Opti '12 trade show held in Munich Jan. 13-15. Visitor numbers have been stable over the last couple of years; last year for example the fair attracted about 22,700 visitors. About 1,300 brands and collections were shown by 457 exhibitors. In ...
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Mister Spex analyses the online market
Dirk Graber, chief executive officer of the German online retailer Mister Spex, appeared at the Opti Forum to present his recently launched multi-channel partnership program with brick-and-mortar opticians – a hybrid business model that is also being followed by big and small companies in France such as Krys or Evioo.com. ...
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MPG launches an expanded Red Bull Racing line
The Michael Pachleitner Group (MPG) launched its first lines of prescription frames and sports eyewear under the Red Bull Racing Eyewear brand at the recent Opti fair in Munich. The functional sports eyewear range, which includes goggles, will also be shown at Ispo, the big international sports trade show starting ...
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MPG is looking for new growth opportunities
The recently restructured Michael Pachleitner Group (MPG) is open for new investments and strategic alliances, following a rather unique development model that has turned it from a small family enterprise, called Uniopt, to a significant global player in the areas of sunglasses, frames, lenses and jewelry.In the areas of sunglasses ...
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Vuarnet goes into children’s, optical and retail
While preparing the launch of a line of prescription frames under its name later this year, the French brand of sunglasses is starting a partnership with a brand of children's clothing, Finger in the Nose. A line of co-branded children's sunglasses will be available at €114 a pair at selected ...
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Costa and Native grow strongly
A.T. Cross, the American group whose optical division markets the Costa and Native lines of sunglasses, is targeting $83 million in revenues and $15 million in operating income before amortization (Ebitda) in 2012 for its optical group, whose sales have been growing at a compound average annual rate of 24 ...
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European software majors come together
The six largest European producers of information technology for opticians and optometrists have formed the Optic Software Vendors Association (OSVA) with a goal of creating and promoting stable and up-to-date IT standards for the European optical market. The companies involved are Bludata, Cristallin, IPRO, Ocuco, Retail Planit and Temáticam, which ...
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Spectaris offers insights into European trends
Last autumn's edition of Spectaris' annual report showed that France remained the biggest European importer of ophthalmic optics products in 2010, with an increase in the value of its imports of 11 percent to €1.02 billion. The second biggest European importer was Germany, with an import value of €906 million, ...
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Essilor acquires Stylemark
Interestingly, Essilor International's acquisition of Stylemark, a leading U.S.-based distributor and licensee of non-prescription readers and sunglasses, was announced last week shortly after the sale by that company of its premium Polaroid Eyewear sunglass business to Safilo, which we reported in the last issue. This seems to confirm that Essilor ...
