Latest Headlines – Page 153
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Hoya Cuts Costs And Margins Go Up
Hoya is transferring some of its European lens production to its super-laboratory in Thailand. As part of this move, the company has eliminated about 10 percent of its 400-odd jobs in its vision care operations in the U.K. and placed one-fourth of its staff in Germany, where its facilities are ...
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The Strong Dollar Brings Novartis Down
The consumer health division of Novartis, which includes CIBA Vision, had a drop in revenues of 11 percent for the first quarter to $1,303 million. In local currencies this was actually an increase of 1 percent. CIBA Vision improved on the momentum of new contact lens products, the company said. ...
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Soft Contact Lenses Grow By 7.7% In Europe
Euromcontact, the European association that groups major manufacturers of contact lenses and related products, has found that the total value of contact lens market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa rose by 7.7 percent last year to €1.182 billion. Among the 21 markets studied, only South Africa ...
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Mr. Lens Expands Internationally
Mr. Lens, an interesting Swiss virtual shop for contact lenses and solutions, has set up a similar e-commerce operation for the German market, called www.mrlens.de, and is planning to move into France with its whole range of products and services in about two months' time. It already entered the Austrian ...
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Alcon's Eye Care Division Drops More Than Overall Sales
Alcon saw its overall sales for the first quarter ended March 31 decrease by 2.8 percent to $1,493.3 million, though this was a climb of 4.8 percent in constant currencies. Its consumer eye care division fell by 7.9 percent to $193.5 million, or an 8.0 percent drop in comparable currencies. ...
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Sales Up At Fgx, But Charges Bring Earnings Down
FGX International had a 3 percent climb in sales in the first quarter to $61.1 million, but reported a loss of $0.6 million, compared with income of $2.2 million for the same period last year. This included a $1.8 million pre-tax impairment charge related to the company's coming exit from ...
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Orange 21 Gets Smaller Nasdaq Listing
Orange 21 says it has received approval of its request to transfer its listing to the Nasdaq Capital Market, with effect from May 8. The parent company of Spy Optic had made the request after receiving a notice from Nasdaq last April 21 that it no longer met the requirements ...
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Italia Independent, Fom High Fashion Stores To Opticians
Italia Independent was established in 2007 with the aim of making a name in the luxury market. Its first success was a very exclusive limited edition of carbon sunglasses, retailing at €1,000 a pair in a few high-end fashion stores. The following year distribution was extended to optical outlets with ...
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Optical Retail Sales Grew By 7.3% At Hal Holding For 2008, Margins Declined
Optical retail sales in 2008 rose by 7.3 percent to €1,977 million in 2008 for HAL Holding, the parent company of Pearle Europe and other optical retail operations around the world. Comparable store sales grew just slightly, up by 0.5 percent. The segment's operating income (Ebit) before exceptional items climbed ...
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German Cartel Office Warns Lens Producers About Price-fixing
Making people believe that prices of eyeglasses will go down, German newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations have widely publicized a statement by the German anti-trust authority that asks five lens producers to stop using their recommended retail prices from April 1 in such a way that they are interpreted ...
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Rodenstock Announces Layoffs, Looks For International Expansion
While taking some new initiatives outside Europe, Rodenstock is reacting to a drop in demand with a program of temporary layoffs. A total of 680 employees out of the 1,625 employees at its German operations, excluding the head office in Munich, are going to stay at home for at least ...
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Declining Results At Zeiss
The Carl Zeiss group confirmed last month an 11 percent currency-neutral increase in the sales of 50-percent-owned Carl Zeiss Vision for the financial year ended last Sept. 30, which we reported a few months ago, but it did not name the company among the operations of the group where sales ...
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Shamir's Sales Grow For Year While Faltering In The 4th Quarter
For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, Shamir Optical Industry had a decrease in revenues of 4.6 percent to $29.2 million compared with the same period in 2007. The gross profit margin was down by 1.8 percentage points to 54.9 percent, but the operating margin grew by 1.2 percentage points ...
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Marcolin Is In The Black After 3 Years
As anticipated by Eyewear Intelligence (Vol. 10, no. 3+4), Marcolin closed 2008 with a net profit of €6.1 million, compared with a net loss of €6.9 million the previous year, putting an end to three years of losses. The company managed to be in the black thanks to the closure ...
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Comps, Sales And Profits Are Up For Ecca
With a 7 percent rise in comparable store sales for 2008, Eye Care Centers of America also saw a 12.5 percent increase in turnover to $537.6 million compared with 2007. Net income was up by 30.6 percent to $32.9 million. Thirty-one percent of the revenues for the chain ...
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Actman Merges With Optoplast Eyewear
A new firm called the Optoplast Actman Eyewear Company Ltd. is set to take over next July the operations of Andrew Actman Ltd., Actman & Mico Ltd. and Optoplast Eyewear Ltd., creating a larger company with a young management and a more international presence, poised to add a more global ...
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X-ice Brings Immagine Through The Final Quarter 2008
Immagine was recently established by Susi and Tiziano Tabacchi, a difficult name to live with in the eyewear industry, but the owners of this Italian eyewear firm are no relation to the family of the owner and chairman of Safilo, Vittorio Tabacchi. The firm has succeeded in carving out a ...
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Bill For Kids' Eye Health Halfway Through U.S. Congress
The U.S. House of Representatives has finally passed its version of the long-awaited ?Vision Care for Kids Act of 2009,? which would ensure that children have follow-up care after being identified as having a possible vision problem in an eye exam or screening. The House passed the bill Tuesday with ...
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Moa Takes Over Distribution In Europe Of Legacie's Lines
The American eyewear firm Legacie, which belongs to B.B. Robinson, has a new European partner to produce and distribute its various brands. Moa, an Italian producer headquartered in Brescia, was already producing the Judith Leiber, Kata and Betsey Johnson collections for Cliff Robinson's New York-based company, but as announced in ...
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Optometrist-turned-creator Now Takes Another Turn As Entrepreneur
Working with other partners, Blake Kuwahara has started a new design collective in West Hollywood, called Focus Group West, to service various segments of the optical industry. It will work in product development and branding, and assist with architectural and interior design, product mix, public relations and other aspects of ...
