Latest Headlines – Page 154
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Safilo Will Cut 1,250 Jobs In Italy And Slovenia, Looks For Additional Equity
Safilo has announced the elimination of 1,250 jobs in Italy and Slovenia as the embattled company seeks to cut production costs in a flagging market. The company intends to trim 800 jobs in Italy by closing its Precenicco manufacturing plant and by downsizing the Martignacco site to a service center. ...
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Fielmann Continues To Grow In Germany
The general economic situation did not prevent Fielmann from recording a sales increase of about 5 percent on a same-store basis during the fourth quarter in Germany. Fielmann officials indicate that their company was satisfied with its performance in Austria and Switzerland as well, and that the new year has ...
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Salmoiraghi Grows By 18.5%
Salmoiraghi & Viganò, Italy's largest optical retailing group, raised its consolidated revenues by 18.5 percent to €178.8 million in the financial year ended last Sept. 30, generating profit margins of 10.6 percent of sales before amortization and depreciation (Ebitda) and 1.7 percent after taxes. Sales grew by 1.3 percent ...
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Luxottica Suspends Dividend, Declines To Give Guidance
Luxottica unexpectedly decided to suspend the payment of a dividend on its 2008 results and declined to give guidance for 2009 due to the current economic uncertainty, pushing the company's already depressed share price down by more than 8 percent in just one day on the Milan stock exchange. ...
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Oakley's Sales Rise By 15%
Oakley closed 2008 with a 15 percent increase in dollar-denominated sales. The company said that market conditions were tough in the second half of the year but it still enjoyed double-digit growth worldwide, except in Europe where it has been integrating its business with Luxottica. The Italian giant bought Oakley ...
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Marchon Wants To Double In Five Years
Reaching the goal that it had set for itself prior to last summer's change of ownership, Marchon achieved sales of more than $500 million in 2008, growing by 11 percent for the year after a rise of nearly 15 percent in the first half. This year will be challenging for ...
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Silhouette Will Replace Swarovski With A New House Brand
Silhouette International and Swarovski Crystals have announced that their 12-year-old licensing deal for Daniel Swarovski Crystal Eyewear will come to an end by mid-2010, but officials of Silhouette say their company will come out with another complete line of high-priced luxury eyewear at next year's Mido fair that will use ...
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Marcolin Improved Margins In 2008
Marcolin expects to report a slight sales increase for 2008, though the group was hit like other companies in the sector in the final quarter. The group's next income statement should tell us how badly, but according to its chief executive, Massimo Saracchi, not badly enough to offset a strong ...
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De Rigo Lost About 2% Of Sales In 2008
De Rigo managed to end 2008 with sales off by no more than 2 percent, which the group's management sees as a satisfactory result, attributed to its success in diversifying its offer both geographically and in terms of price points. The severe consumption crisis in the U.S. had little impact ...
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Allison Replaces Subsidiaries With Agencies And Renews Its Brand Portfolio
The strategic development conducted by Antonio Bortuzzo (Eyewear Intelligence Vol. 9, No. 9) when he took over the helm at Allison is now taking shape, pursuing further policies that the group's founder, Silvio Vecellio Reane, had set in motion. The first aim was to drastically reorganize the group's distribution structure, ...
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Serengeti Launches High-tech Polarized Nxt Lenses
Serengeti, the top-end sunglass brand belonging to the American Bushnell group, has joined forces with Intercast Europe to produce a new polarized photochromic lens, for a new collection of Serengeti Sport and Wire Flex Series models. The lens is the Serengeti Polar Phd, claimed to be 10 percent lighter than ...
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Essilor Reaches An 18.2% Ebit Margin, Excluding Satisloh
The world's leading supplier of ophthalmic lenses reported a modest 4.3 percent rise in its net income to €382.4 million for last year, which together with the cost of Satisloh's acquisition translated into a light dip in its net margin to 12.4 percent from 12.6 percent the year before. Similar ...
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Seiko Expands In Europe
Seiko is taking over the distribution in various countries in Europe and the Middle East for its ophthalmic lenses and related products. For example, Seiko's sales in the Middle East and North Africa are now steered out of an office in Amman, Jordan, which is run by Majdi Kayyal, formerly ...
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Attendance Fell By 9% At Mido
Mido finished up what its president called «one of the most difficult» trade shows it has experienced with a 9 percent drop in the number of visitors to about 42,000. Considering the double impact of a major change of dates and a tough economic climate, this score was said to ...
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European Industry Gets Ready For New Action In Brussels
At a meeting during the recent Mido fair in Milan, members of Eurom 1, the organization that groups the eyewear industry associations of many European countries, decided in principle to present position papers to the European Commission in the autumn to back up their requests for new European regulations on ...
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Italian Sunglass Exports To U.S. Drop More Than Prescription Frames
The global financial crisis has impacted the Italian eyewear industry, resulting in a 6.4 percent drop in the value and a 2.4 percent fall in the volume of its production, with sales totaling €2,597 million. Exports, which account for 85 percent of the total, lost 4.7 percentage points, totaling €2,207 ...
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Gfk Expands Its Footprint In Optics
GfK is expanding its global footprint in the optical sector by covering many important new markets and by adding new services. The German market research company, whose global optics research operations are coordinated from Milan, stressed at a conference during Mido that the kind of knowledge it provides periodically can ...
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Fgx Has Satisfying Results
Fourth-quarter sales were up by 5 percent for FGX International, parent of Foster Grant, reaching $66.2 million for the period, ended Jan. 3. While non-prescription reading glasses business remained flat at $31.7 million, sales of sunglasses and prescription frames jumped by 50 percent to $24.8 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, ...
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Dollond & Aitchison Merges With Boots Opticians In The U.K.
Dollond & Aitchison, the British optical retail chain owned by the Italian eyewear manufacturer De Rigo, and Boots Opticians, owned by the health care and beauty group Alliance Boots, will merge to form the U.K.'s second-largest optical retailer after Specsavers. Alliance Boots will own 60 percent of the merged entity ...
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Former Safilo Exec Becomes President Of Marchon
Claudio Gottardi, who left as president and chief executive of the American subsidiary of Safilo Group in December to pursue new professional opportunities, has found a great one: He is the new president of Marchon, and chief executive of Marchon International. Gottardi, 52, worked for 23 years at Safilo, ...
