Latest Headlines – Page 182
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Coopervision Gains Market Share In All But A Couple Of Segments
The global market for soft contact lenses expanded by an estimated 10-12 percent in the first nine months of 2005, but CooperVision's sales of these products rose by only 8 percent on an organic during the 12 months ended Oct. 31, including those made by Ocular Sciences prior to its ...
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A One-man Show Won A Golden Silmo Award, Along With Some Bigger Firms
As the biggest French company in the sector, Essilor tends to get a SILMO Gold Award each time. In addition to wresting the OLA Award of Excellence for best lens design at the annual fair of the Optical Laboratories Association in the USA through its Varilux Ellipse model, it got ...
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Sover And Visibilia Look To The East
Sover posted 15 percent growth to €18 million in the 1st half of the year. The decision made in 1993 to focus on the East European markets joint ventures with local distributors in Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Romania - has clearly proved its validity in terms of performance. ...
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Safilo Enters The Stock Exchange At The Low End Of Its Projections
Safilo is going back to the Milan stock exchange at an initial price of €4.90 a share, giving the company a valuation of €1.39 billion before debt. The price, which was announced last night, one day later than scheduled, is at the bottom of a range of between €4.80 and ...
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Safilo Gets The Hugo Boss License
Safilo would lose about 10 percent of its global turnover and 20 percent of its U.S. sales if its license with Ralph Lauren is not renewed at the end of 2006, according to reports that could not be confirmed. Luxottica is said to be a strong candidate to take it ...
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Fielmann Gains More Market Share
German opticians are recovering from last year's big slump in the market, caused by the phase-out of government subsidies for consumers' purchases of vision care products. The market leader, Fielmann, has benefited from this recovery more than the others. With 4.2 million units sold in the first nine ...
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Austrian Retailers Launch A Bew Banner, United Optics
Vista, a 10-year-old group of 20 well-established opticians who own a total of about 90 stores all over Austria, have decided to launch a common banner, called United Optics, and a common corporate identity. They are looking at setting up between 10 and 15 stores under this name over the ...
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Afflelou Develops Strongly In Spain
F2L, a single company comprising numerous shareholders, is taking over the ownership of 45 optical retail stores from Alain Afflelou Optico, the company set up by Alain Afflelou to manage his expanding interests in Spain, including the optical stores that previously belonged to Carrefour. The shareholders include various Spanish and ...
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Ecca Sees Profits Decline Ahead Of A Probably Sale
In its 3rd quarter ended Oct. 1, 2005, Eye Care Centers of America saw its net income drop by 45.0 percent to $1.6 million, due to increased interest expenses. Without them, the U.S. optical retailing group would have fare relatively well in the period, with total revenues growing by 2.3 ...
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Marcolin Is In The Red, But Should Improve With New Iniatives
Marcolin is one of the ten Italian public companies that have scored the biggest improvement in stock market capitalization so far this year. Its stock price, which was badly depressed by the news of the impending end of its Dolce & Gabbana eyewear license, grew by 121 percent in the ...
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Zeiss Improves Group Profits
Carl Zeiss Vision International, the new entity that came out of the merger of Carl Zeiss' vision care business and SOLA International last March, had a turnover of €415 million in the first six months of its activity, from Apr. 1 to Sept. 30, 2005, according to the Carl Zeiss ...
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New Management And New Program For The French Eyewear Industry
Henri Venet, a 41-year-old attoreny who has been running for the past six years Lunetiers du Jura, the eyewear manufacturers' association of the Jura region of France, will cumulate this function with the management of GIFO, the French eyewear industry association. He will also continue to run Lunettes de France, ...
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Atol Repatriates The Production Of One Of Its Private Lines
A French eyewear company, Oxibis, will manufacture the Ushuaia collection of eyewear exclusively licensed by Atol, one of the largest buying groups in France. As it does with its own collections, Oxibis and Exalto, Oxibis is using its own subcontractors in the Jura region of France to make the Ushuaia ...
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Coopervision Lowers Guidance Again
Cooper Companies has lowered for the third time its guidance on group revenues for the 4th quarter, which ended on Oct. 31, as well as for the next two fiscal years. In a conference call held with analysts on Nov. 22, which he said was the worst one in which ...
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Bausch & Lomb Looks To Grab A Bigger Piece Of Silicon Hydrogel Market
Bausch & Lomb entered 2005 as the #4 player in the U.S. contact lens market in terms of revenues, but says it is going to surpass CooperVision by the end of this year and secure the #3 spot thanks to its growing sales of Purevision silicon hydrogel lens. B&L claims ...
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Strong Third Quarter For Shamir, Subsidiary Is Set Up In France
In the 3rd quarter ended Sept. 30, Shamir Optical posted an increase in revenues of 9.6 percent to $19.4 million. Gross margin expanded by 22.4 percent to represent 55.7 percent of total revenues and a gross profit of $10.8 million. Operating income fell by 8.0 percent to $2.6 million and ...
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Guildinvest Teams Up With Cione In Spain
Guildinvest likes to make a big announcements on the eve of the SILMO fair every year. After doing so in previous years with the annexation of the CDO buying group and with the takeover of the Lynx chain, the French parent company of Krys, Vision Plus, Vision Originale and other ...
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Boots Opticians Performs Poorly Amidst Restructuring
Boots Opticians posted a decline in sales of 10.5 percent to £82.9 million (€123.4m-$145m) in the 1st half ended Sept. 30, and had an operating loss of £5 million (€7.4m-$8.7m) as compared to a profit of £1.5 million in the year-ago period. The optical division of Boots plc is still ...
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De Rigo's Retail Chains Produce Mixed Results In First Nine Months
The company's net sales for the first nine months of the year dropped by 2.1 percent to €387.6 million. The result reflects a decline of 2.2 percent to €292.5 million in its retail sales. Its two retail chains, General Optica in Spain, and Dolland & Aitchison in the UK, produced ...
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Strong Momentum For Luxottica
The highlights of the 3rd quarter include a 5.3 percent increase in same-store sales for its retail operations and organic growth of just below 20 percent in wholesale operations. The acquisition of Cole National in the USA and the addition of the Donna Karan license boosted overall scores, translating into ...
