Latest Headlines – Page 186
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Is Johnson & Johnson Going To Buy Rodenstock?
According to some well-informed sources, Johnson & Johnson has been discussing the possible acquisition of Rodenstock or of its ophthalmic lens operations, a move that would help the global leader in contact lenses to make a stronger statement in the eyeglass sector. After a lot of fine-tuning, Johnson & Johnson ...
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Moulin Seeks Extra Financing
The entrance of a strategic investor is one of the options being considered by Moulin International, recently renamed as Moulin Global Eyecare Holdings, following its costly acquisition last March 1 of a controlling stake in Eye Care Centers of America. Other options are the issue of rights or securities, or ...
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Randazzo Acquires 36 Corners And Reaches A Total Of 122 Outlets
The Angelo Randazzo group, originally founded in Palermo, Sicily, now has a total of 122 outlets in 16 regions of Italy. It has pursued its expansionfter acquiring the 31 stores of the bankrupt Ottica Romani chain last year for €14.5 million. On the eve of the MIDO show in Milan, ...
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Spain's Cecop Enters Italian Market
CECOP, a Spanish buying group founded in 1996, has begun to penetrate the Italian optical retail market. It has persuaded the first 60 Italian retailers to join it, mostly from the Northern part of the country. A total of 900 members with 1,100 store belong to CECOP, which began to ...
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Average Selling Prices Drop At Fielmann
Fielmann's quarterly financial report shows a 13.3 percent decline in consolidated sales to €169.0 million for the period ended March 31, as compared to the first three months of last year, although the quantities sold increased to 1.4 million pairs from 1.28 million pairs. Company officials attribute the decline in ...
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Sales And Profits Fall At Boots Opticians
Boots Opticians generated sales of £182.5 million (€270.4m-$332.0m) during the financial year ended on March 31, down 8.6 percent excluding disposals, with a decline of 4.7 percent on a same-store basis. Business was described as ?difficult? during the year, and the decrease in revenues was attributed to confusion among customers ...
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Allison Signs Up With Birkkembergs
Allison has added Dirk Bikkembergs to its stable of brands. The agreement signed with the Belgian designer on the eve of the recent MIDO show covers the worldwide production and distribution of top-end sun and prescription eyewear for a 5-year period, renewable for a further five. The models will retail ...
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German Firms Perform Better Abroad
German producers of eyewear lenses and frames are expecting a further increase of about 10 percent in their business outside the country this year, the same as in 2004. According to their industry association, Spectaris, German companies should be able to reach total revenues of nearly €3.3 billion this year, ...
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Eschenbach Makes Record Profits
In spite of the German health reform, Eschenbach made last year the highest profit since its foundation in 1913. The main reason, company officials say, was a series of investments made in 2003 to boost the profitability of its foreign operations, including the establishment of a US sales subsidiary for ...
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Fabris Lane Divulges Its Results
Fabris Lane reported operating profit of £2,378,000 (€3.5m-$4.3m) on invoiced sales of £18,592,000 (€27.5m-$33.8m) in its latest financial year, which finished Sept. 30, 2004, but the sales figure has been adjusted to £17.542 million (€25.9m-$31.9m), and it corresponds to retail sales of about £75 million (€111m-$136m). Operating results declined by ...
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Coopervision Proceeds With The Integration Of Oci In Europe
The integration of Ocular Sciences, which was merged into CooperVision last January, is causing certain temporary disruptions in the supply chain. Combined with high inventories of Ocular's spherical contact lenses which built up in the USA prior to the merger, this has led CVI to reduce its sales forecast for ...
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Satisloh Moves Into Free-form
Satisloh, the new company that came out of the merger of Satis Vacuum and Loh last Nov. 11, has entered the promising field of free-form lens generation with two competitive models, positioning itself as a strong alternative to the market leader in this specific segment, Schneider Opticmachines. In an effort ...
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But Schneider Has Things Up Its Sleeve
Schneider Opticmachines, the company that pioneered free-form high-speed surfacing of ophthalmic lenses, is planning to expand its portfolio of surfacing solutions later this year. Declining to provide any details or to comment on Satisloh's attempt to enter into free-form cutting, Gunter Schneider, president of the company, stresses that his company ...
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Visionix Had A Temporary Sales Drop
Visionix got a lot of interest for its VL-2000 measuring instrument at last month's MIDO fair from the rising number of opticians who are adopting free-form technology, to check that everything is all right before surfacing the lenses. The acquisition of Luneau has enabled the Israeli firm to penetrate large ...
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Mazzucchelli Reorganizes Comotec
After its merger with Mazzucchelli, the Italian producer specializing in plastic components for eyewear, Comotec, the French company specializing in metal parts, has undergone a major reorganization resulting in the closure of one of its three plants. Initial protests were followed by an agreement between the management and unions that ...
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Machinery Sales Move To Asia
The eyewear machinery business is following the market both in terms of economic performance and geographical movement. For example, Germany's Haug, whose equipment covers the entire production process from welding to lens cutting, is now delivering 85 percent of it to China and the rest to Europe. Back in 1995, ...
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Attendance Grows By 5.8% At Mido
The return to its former 4-day format resulted in a 5.8 percent increase in visitors to the MIDO fair in 2005 compared with last year's session. A total of 39,278 people turned up to visit 1,222 companies showcasing around 2,000 different brands. With only a few exceptions, exhibitors were generally ...
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Small Italian Firms Ask For State Help
The small and medium-sized producers in Italy's Belluno district that belong to SIPAO, the local association of eyewear manufacturers, have drawn up a joint plan to market and promote their products on an international scale. They are requesting a contribution from the regional and national authorities and various state bodies ...
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Luxottica Improves Sharply
Luxottica is forecasting a slightly higher net profit of €305-314 million for this year on sales of between €4,000 million and €4,150 million after a strong first quarter in which its turnover jumped by 34.8 percent to €1,037 million, mainly due to acquisitions. Sales would have risen by 39.7 percent ...
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Vision Service Acquires Interoptical, Reinforcing Its Leadership In Italy
Growing to 609 affiliated stores with annual sales of about €132 million, Vision Service boosts its #1 status as Italy's largest buying group in the sector, with a market share of 6-7 percent in optical retailing, following the takeover of Opa Invest, the company that runs the Interoptical franchise. Its ...
