Latest Headlines – Page 172
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Fielmann Performs Better, Accelerates Its Expansion
Fielmann's management is pretty confident that it will pass the symbolic threshold of €100 million in pre-tax profit in 2006, as compared to €87 million in 2005. Furthermore, the company will have opened 30 new doors this year, or more than it had originally planned. Many of the new openings ...
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Alain Afflelou Expands More Abroad, Buys Less For Its Own Franchisees
While the number of directly owned and franchised stores increased to 831 by Oct. 31, at the end of the 1st half of its financial year, up sharply from 758 one year earlier, Alain Afflelou's revenues from commissions on the purchases it makes in behalf of its franchisees dropped by ...
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Eyewear Cases: Gatto Seeks Financing, Fedon Tops 50 Million Units
Gatto Astucci has denied a rumor in the Italian press that Centrobanca, an Italian investment bank, is about to acquire a majority stake in the company. The Italian producer of eyewear cases, based in the Veneto region, says it is simply negotiating with various private equity firms and merchant banks ...
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Luxottica Licenses Tiffany, Plans Another Acquisition
Luxottica has announced a prestigious 10-year license with Tiffany, the famous 169-year-old American retailer of fine jewelry, providing for the design, manufacturing and worldwide distribution of exclusive ophthalmic and sun collections under the Tiffany & Co name. The move marks Tiffany's entrance into the eyewear market, after signing timepieces, tableware ...
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Allison Gets The Licenses For United Colors Of Benetton And Sisley
Allison, the fast-growing Italian eyewear company, has signed a licensing agreement with Benetton Group that will significantly boost its sales and ease the way to a possible listing on the stock exchange, like its competitors Luxottica, Safilo and Marcolin, following its recent acquisition by an Italian investment fund, Carisma, owned ...
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Marcolin Sets Up A Japanese Joint Venture With Optec
Marcolin has set up a joint venture for the rich and promising Japanese market with Optec, a Japanese producer of eyewear that is also a distributor and licensee of glasses under the well-known Oliver Peoples and Paul Smith brands. The announcement came after the Italian company successfully concluded a capital ...
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Clearlab Closes Its British Factory
ClearLab, the contact lens manufacturer bought by 1-800 Contacts from the USA several years ago, has announced the shutdown of its British plant at Estover, near Plymouth, resulting in about 100 layoffs. Its operations will be consolidated into the company's state-of-the-art plant in Singapore, but ClearLab will continue to have ...
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Advanced Medical Optics Recalls Contact Lens Solution
It sounds like a reply of Bausch & Lomb's saga with its own ReNu with MoistureLoc solution. Advanced Medical Optics indicates that it is acting carefully with the steps it takes in recalling certain lots of its own 12-ounce Complete MoisturePlus multi-purpose contact lens solution. Bacterial contamination was found in ...
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Cooper Struggles With Silicon Hydrogel Launch, Distribution Consolidation
The Cooper Companies' 4th quarter, ended Oct. 31, was marred by internal and external problems. The company's previously announced consolidation of its distribution in the USA and in Europe ? going from 21 distribution centers to just five ? didn't go as planned and was actually ?disastrous? for a couple ...
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Vidivici's Revenues And Profits Soar
VidiVici, an ebullient Italian company that is making waves in the designer segment of the eyewear market, plans to open a sales subsidiary in Miami for the U.S. market, after the recent opening of a Spanish sales branch in Barcelona. VidiVici already has a German sales subsidiary and one in ...
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Orange 21 Copes With New Losses
As it continued to integrate LEM, the Italian sunglass manufacturer it recently acquired, Orange 21 implemented several strategies in the 3rd quarter ended Sept. 30 to turn its overall business around. The company decided to cease producing a significant amount of under-performing SKUs, and has launched a program designed to ...
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Looking Behind Rudy Project's Sports Eyewear Truck And Its New Website
At trade fairs as well as at sporting events all over the world, the large black Rudy Project truck rapidly turns into a booth with office space and a display area for the brand's sports eyewear lines. It has become a highly distinctive feature of this Italian company from the ...
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New Japanese Lens Introductions At Ioft
As usual, some Japanese companies used the IOFT show in Tokyo last October to introduce some new technologies, initially on the domestic Japanese market. Not all of them will make their way to Europe or the USA, or at least not right away, partly because of the increasing sophistication needed ...
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New Optical Fashion Group Has Been Formed In The Nordic Countries
An article published in the previous issue of EyeWear Intelligence about the new Nordic Optical Alliance reported incorrectly that the Swedish-based Synsam chain has bought Profil Optik in Denmark. Instead Synsam and Profil Optik, which are both buying and marketing groups, have formed a joint wholesale company, Optical Fashion Group, ...
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Luxottica Buys Another U.S. Chain
In an ongoing effort to reinforce its presence in North America, which has not yet come to an end, Luxottica has agreed to buy D.O.C Optics, a rather fashionable American optical retail chain that has about 100 stores located for the most part in the Midwest around Detroit, including 11 ...
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Safilo Buys A Spanish Chain, Will Launch The Banana Republic License In 2007
After several years of negotiations, probably hampered by its cost containment efforts, Safilo signed a €23 million deal last Nov. 9 to take over Loop Vision, a chain of 61 high-end optical and sunglass stores in excellent locations throughout Spain with sales expected to reach €25 million this year. Safilo's ...
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Marcolin Books Second Quarterly Operating Profits
Marcolin booked a second consecutive quarterly operating profit in the 3rd quarter, ended Sept. 30, as the group continues its restructuring efforts and to overcome last year's loss of the Dolce & Gabbana licence. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were a positive €1,219 million in the quarter, ...
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Marcolin Boosts Equity By €30 Million, Brings In New Shareholder
Marcolin announced the details of a €29,835,247 capital increase that will enable the group to reinforce its balance sheet and raise funds to finance its development through the issue of 1,761,375 new shares. The company says it will use the proceeds to improve its debt/equity ratio, to finance the development ...
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Another Fund Will Own Bushnell
Bushnell Performance Optics will probably have a new majority shareholder by next January, as Windpoint Partners, the investment fund that helped Joe Messmer to take over the first components of the group in 1999, wants to cash out. While Messmer and other individual shareholders plan to put some equity back ...
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De Rigo's Revenues Start To Grow Again
De Rigo closed the first half of 2006 with revenues of €295.5 million, up by 10.5 percent over the same period of last year, but they grew by only about 8 percent on a comparable basis. The group's wholesale activities and its two retail chains, General Optica in Spain and ...
