Latest Headlines – Page 136
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Luxottica hikes profits, dividends
Luxottica booked an adjusted net profit of €402.7 million in 2010 compared with €299.1 million a year earlier and decided to increase the dividend per share to €0.44.from €0.35. The company confirmed preliminary data released in January (see EyeWear Intelligence of Jan. 17) indicating that full-year revenues rose by 13.8 ...
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Oakley launches sunglass customization in Europe
Oakley expects sales of men and women's sunglasses to enjoy double-digit growth in 2011, and one of the growth drivers this will be the introduction of its customization service in Europe.Customized products represent about 30 percent of the brand's retail sales and has been registering an annual growth of about ...
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Safilo cuts workers and factories
From March 1, most of the workforce in the Friuli plants is on standby, covered by the Italian “Cassa Integrazione” system, which ensures that workers continue to get paid when on temporary layoff. The only exception is a group of 162 employees currently working on new series, who will be ...
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Allison grows, plans new brand
Allison is in the process of negotiating licensing terms with a new brand, but no further details are available at the moment. The past two years have seen some serious reorganization of the brand portfolio. When profitability and sales volumes were seen as lacking, licenses for such famous names as ...
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Italian eyewear exports grew by 17.3% in 2010
The first quarter of 2011 is likely to confirm the trend set by Italian eyewear exports in 2010, with growth expected to reach around 15 percent. In contrast with this rosy picture, there is also confirmation that the domestic market is remaining stagnant, after losing 2.5 percentage points in 2010. ...
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Salmoiraghi declines with the Italian market
The Salmoiraghi & Viganò Group, Italy's leading optical retail chain with over 500 stores, closed its fiscal year last Sept. 30 with consolidated turnover of €181.2 million, 3.5 percent off compared with 2008-09, close to the overall 2.5 percent drop recorded by Italy's domestic eyewear market. Ebitda was €16.3 million, ...
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Spectaris’ study shows interesting national trends in Europe
Too bad it's only available in German. Put out last September by Spectaris, the German ophthalmic industry association, the report provides the reader with an overview of the European ophthalmic optics market, its consumers and future trends. It shows, among other things, that France was the biggest European importer of ...
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Vision problems wane worldwide
Maybe things aren't as bad as they seemed. The World Health Organization has revised its previous estimates about the number of people worldwide who have severe vision problems. It is now saying that 285 million people are visually impaired, with 39 million being blind and 246 million with moderate to ...
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Italo-Canadian alliance in low vision
Eye Technologies, an Italian company specializing in optical instruments for low vision, has been appointed distributor in the Italian market for a world leader in this sector, Human Ware, a Canadian firm renowned for having developed electronic systems for dealing with this condition. The agreement leaves Eye Technologies free to ...
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Mido for better vision
Ramping up before the fair officially starts tomorrow, Mido's organizers have already kicked off their “Mido for Your Vision” initiative in cooperation with a non-profit group, Vision + Onlus, and with the city of Milan sponsoring. The project, which started last Monday, aims to support vision health through a special ...
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Vision Service Joins Forces With Vision Is
In 2006, Vision Service, an important Italian buying group, and the big Salmoiraghi & Viganò chain had established a joint entity, Kentral, to increase their buying power. However, their combination, with total retail sales of €120 million in 2010, has failed to produce the expected benefits, in spite an improvement ...
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Improving Randazzo Goes Green
Gruppo Randazzo, which owns the Italian Optissimo chain of optical stores and the related chain of Optic store corners in hypermarkets and supermarkets, closed 2010 with total sales of €120 million, up by 5 percent for the second year in a row. On a same-store basis, last year's growth was ...
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German Web Stores Expand In Europe
Mister Spex, the German online optical retailer, continues to grow rapidly and to expand internationally. Led by Dirk Graber, who founded in May 2008, the company reached sales of €4.5 million in 2009, and they grew last year by about 150 percent to €11 million. In May 2010, the company ...
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Rodenstock's Management Undergoes Another Reorganization
After settling its debt (see previous issue), Rodenstock Group is restructuring its management in an effort to better integrate its sales and marketing departments so they work better for their relevant markets, and to increase effectiveness and competitiveness. The company's recently appointed chief executive, Oliver Kastalio, will be directly responsible ...
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Hoya Vision Care Grows By 8% In Europe
The ophthalmic lens segment of Hoya Corporation's life care division saw its sales decline by 3 percent in the 3rd quarter ended Dec. 31. The company booked higher deliveries of lenses in Japan as well as in the rest of the world, but suffered from lower unit sales prices in ...
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Positive Trends In The German Market
Thomas Truckenbrod, president of ZVA, the German association of ophthalmic opticians, reported at the Opti '11 trade fair that the German ophthalmic optics market had an increase in sales of about 3 percent last year. As market results are not complete this early in the year, the ZVA conducted a ...
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Russian Market Rebounds And Changes After Recession
The Russian eyewear market is slowly starting to rebound. Before the global economic crisis, it was on a fast growth track, but then it was hit with economic woes and the major chains were just worried about controlling expenses. Russian consumers bought cheaper lenses, and bought them less frequently, in ...
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Signature Books 24th Profitable Quarter
Signature Eyewear managed to book net income of $47,000 on sales of $4.9 million in the fourth quarter ending Oct. 31 despite a tough business environment. The period was the company's 24th consecutive profitable quarter in a row. For the full financial year, however, net income fell to ...
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Coburn Technologies Names New Management Team
Coburn Technologies, formerly Gerber Coburn, has appointed a new management team following the sale in December of the company by the conglomerate Gerber Scientific. As we have previously announced, Gerber Coburn was sold to Coburn Technologies, a new company controlled by Edward Jepsen, a former Gerber Scientic board member, Alex ...
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Eyevit Licenses Fiorucci
Eyevit Distribuzione has signed a three-year agreement to produce and distribute sunglasses and prescription frames for women and children under the Fiorucci name. The deal covers the Italian and foreign markets, with a special focus on Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, Turkey and Russia where Fiorucci has a strong presence and ...
