Latest Headlines – Page 167
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Orange 21 Expands Sales As Well As Losses
Orange 21, parent company of Spy Optics, confirmed a few weeks ago reports that it is negotiating the acquisition of an American chain of 40 young fashion stores, called No Fear, which sell or may sell Spy eyewear as an accessory. Mark Simo, chairman and chief executive of Orange 21, ...
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French Luxury Store Duplicates Itself In Second Life
Les Plus Belles Lunettes du Monde, a French name that stands for ?The World's Most Beautiful Spectacles,? is the banner on a very classy optical retail store that opened in downtown Paris 18 months ago, next to Oakley's flagship store in the French capital. For six months starting last Sept. ...
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Big Merger In The Works In The Spanish Retail Sector
Discussions are taking place about the possible merger of three Spanish-based optical retailing groups - +Vision, Sun Planet and MultiOpticas Internacional - forming a new international conglomerate with more than 700 company-owned and affiliated stores in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. According to local press reports, an agreement can ...
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Amo Drops Its Bid For B&L, While Announcing Big Losses
Advanced Medical Optics yesterday withdrew its offer to acquire Bausch & Lomb in a merger deal, charging its board of directors of imposing ?unrealistic hurdles,? but left the door open for negotiations in the future. B&L had extended until last Friday a deadline for AMO to provide evidence that its ...
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New Owners For Eschenbach
Another investment fund is taking over control of Eschenbach from Hanover Finanz, which acquired the majority of its shares from the Eschenbach family eight years ago. One of the goals is to help the big German group to continue to achieve above-average growth, notably through strategic acquisitions, says a company ...
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And For Bushnell, Too
As we reported last November, Wind Point Partners, the American investment fund that helped Joe Messmer to take over Bushnell in 1999, accompanying its steady expansion since then through organic growth and acquisitions, has been looking for new investors to take over its controlling stake in the company, now called ...
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Luxottica Will Earn More Than Expected, Despite Lower Retail Growth
Luxottica increased its guidance for full-year earnings per share (EPS) to €1.11-1.13 from €1.07-1.09 despite a weakening of the dollar against the euro and a softening in U.S. consumer demand. However, the company also cut its estimate for comparable store sales growth to 2-3 percent this year from a previous ...
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Luxottica Launches A Luxury Eyewear Chain, Called Ilori
Ilori is a name that stands for ?special treasure.? Luxottica is putting it on a new chain of premium sunglass stores being rolled out initially in North America alone, with a target of 150 doors over the next two years. The first Ilori store is set to open ...
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Safilo Cuts Ebitda Guidance
Safilo cut its full-year forecast for this year's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to around €180 million from a previous estimate of €190 million due to the dollar's decline and to returns of unsold Polo Ralph Lauren eyewear. However, the company's management confirmed expectations that full-year sales ...
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De Rigo Sets Up A Chinese Sales Subsidiary
De Rigo is opening its own sales subsidiary in China, as it did recently in Croatia and Brazil (see previous issue). The Italian company plans to acquire two more optical retail chains next year, one of which is located in Europe, but company executives decline to specify the country. ...
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Oakley Reports On A New Sales Momentum
The Oakley brand seems to gaining a new momentum while Luxottica is completing the procedures for its takeover along with the rest of its company. As a whole, the Oakley group raised its sales by 29 percent to $263 million in the second quarter ended June 30, with 6 percentage ...
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Nikon Reorganizes Distribution Of Sports Optics In Central Europe
Nikon is getting serious about winning ground with its eyewear in the European sports, outdoor and hunting retail channels. To accomplish this, the Japanese company has signed new contracts with major specialized wholesalers in Germany and Austria. In Germany, Nikon sports optics are now handled through the company of Gustav ...
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Growth Of 8.7% For Essilor In Quarter
Essilor booked a nice 8.7 percent sales increase on a comparable basis for the 2nd quarter ended June 30, pushing up to 8.4 percent the growth rate for the first half of this year. In terms of euros and including acquisitions, sales increased by 8.3 percent to €1,475.6 million for ...
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Margins Decline At Hoya
Noted for its relatively high operating margins, Hoya Vision Care witnessed a decline to 16.3 percent for its first financial quarter, ended June 30, as compared to a margin of 18.5 percent in the same period a year ago, in spite of a 16.2 percent sales increase to ¥ 32.45 ...
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Alcon Acquires German Laser Firm
The Swiss group has agreed to take over WaveLight, a German laser company that has already supplied more than 800 units of its Allegretto laser system for refractive eye surgery. The purchase price is reported to be €66 million. Alcon says the Allegretto system will make a great combination ...
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A Look At The U.S. Sunglass Market
At the European Sunglass Association's (ESA) annual conference near Athens last June, Tibor Gross, the president of the Sunglass Association of America (SAA), the ESA's counterpart in the United States, said the American market will have significant buying power among ?baby boomers,? or the 78 million citizens that were born ...
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Luxottica Buys Oakley For $2.1 Billion
The price of $29.30 being paid by Luxottica in the all-cash transaction announced yesterday values the Oakley group at $2.1 billion, representing a premium of 24 percent above its average stock market price of the last three months, or 30 percent over six months. It's a long shot from a ...
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Safilo Signs Up Jimmy Choo
After securing a licensing deal with Gucci Group for Balenciaga eyewear, Safilo has added another license in the high-end segment of the market through an agreement with Jimmy Choo, a prestigeous English brand of elegant women's footwear that has been growing strongly on a global basis. It is the ...
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Allison Takes Over Alessandro Dell'acqua License
Replacing Visibilia, which had the eyewear license from this Italian fashion designer before, another fast-growing Italian company, Allison, will produce and distribute sun and optical glass under the name of Alessandro Dell'Acqua for the next five years. The license is expected to generate about €30 million in sales by 2011. ...
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1-800 Contacts And Clearlab Are Sold Separately
Through a transaction valued at about $340 million, 1-800 Contacts will be sold to Fenway Partners, an American private equity firm. Fenway Partners is paying $24.25 per share for the American contact lens company, representing a 21 percent premium over 1-800 Contacts' closing share price on June 1 and a ...
