Latest Headlines – Page 191
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Claus Scheiner Owns 100% Of Ccs Royal
Claus Scheiner, the former managing director of Swarovski Optik in Germany who founded CCS Royal 20 years ago, has acquired full ownership of his company. Airess, the French company that went into liquidation at the beginning of this year, previously owned 51 percent of the shares, which were taken over ...
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Italian Eyewear Exports Grow By 3.2%
Total sales of eyewear products made in Italy grew by 3.2 percent to €821 million in the 6-month period ended last June 30, leading the management of the country's eyewear industry association, ANFAO, to express cautious optimism about the recovery of the international market before the traditional fashion show that ...
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More Sunglasses Are Exported From America
US exports of sunglasses bounced back during the first three months of 2004, confirming a certain recovery in the international market for these products. Following a disappointing trend at the end of 2003, US sunglass exports picked up by 3 percent in volume in the first quarter, reaching 4.9 million ...
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Italy Adopts The American ?Check Yearly. See Clearly? Program
Italy's Commissione Difesa Vista (CDV), which comprises diverse associations of the Italian vision community, has commissioned an Italian version of the successful ?Check Yearly. See Clearly? program led by Vision Council of America, calling it ?Controllo annuale vista ottimale.? The aim is to increase the number of Italians who receive ...
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Way Cleared For Luxottica's Takeover Of Cole National
The US Federal Trade Commission has given an unconditional approval of Cole National's merger into Luxottica Group's bulging North American retail division, meaning that the Italian group will not have to divest any of the LensCrafters or Sunglass Hut stores that it operates in the USA. The deal is ...
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Satis Vacuum's Parent Company Plans To Acquire Loh
Schweiter Technologies, which bought Satis Vacuum at the end of 1980's ago from Rudolf Suter (see article on him further below), has signed a letter of intent to acquire the German-based Loh Group. With Satis Vacuum controlling about 60 percent of the world market for lens coating machinery and Loh ...
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Shamir Buys Cambridge Optical
Acting through its Frankfurt-based European distribution subsidiary, Altra Optics, Shamir Optical Industry of Israel has acquired JMH Holdings, the British group that owns Cambridge Optical, reinforcing its position in the Northern European market. Cambridge, which specializes in glazing, surfacing and manufacturing lenses, launched the Harrods Luxury Eyewear line four years ...
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Boots Gets Out Of Lasik
Boots has decided to close its laser eye correction, dentistry, chiropody and laser hair removal businesses as part of its ongoing strategy to concentrate on Boots The Chemists. The group said that, despite improvements in productivity, these businesses had been deemed unlikely to generate acceptable revenues and profits. The ...
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De Rigo Posts Higher Earnings And Changes D&A's Management
Andrew Ferguson, who has been commercial director of Dollond & Aitchison since 1997, has been promoted as CEO of the British optical retail chain, replacing Russell Hardy who has left after eight years at the head of the company, owned by De Rigo. Both executives had previously worked in the ...
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Essilor Posts An 18% Ebit Margin
The operating profit margin (Ebit) should get close to 17.5 percent for the full year, says the management of Essilor International, predicting increases of 10 percent in sales and pre-tax earnings. In the first half ended June 30, the company reached an Ebit margin of 18.0 percent, up from 17.7 ...
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Spy Goes Public
Spy Optic is filing a public offering to raise an indicated $20.7 million which would be used to repay loans of $300,000 and for general corporate purposes. In particular, the company wants to expand its distribution in the USA outside its home base in California, a state which accounted for ...
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Sales Jump By 17.3% At Alain Afflelou
Alain Afflelou's revenues for the first quarter ended July 31 totaled €29.2 million, up 17.3 percent from the previous year. Like in the previous financial year, major factors were again the sale of exclusive products, which rose 60.8 percent to €7.4 million, and the opening of 183 new stores over ...
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Coopervision Improves Margins And Market Shares
The Cooper Companies, which is in line to complete the acquisition of Ocular Sciences on Nov. 1, budgets total revenues of $387-390 million for CooperVision (CVI) during the present fiscal year ending on Oct. 31, thanks to continued strong worldwide growth for specialty contact lenses. For the 3rd quarter ...
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Marcolin Starts Making Profits Agains
Marcolin Group's pre-tax profit rose to €6.2 million during the first six months of 2004, as compared to the break-even results posted for the same period last year, while turnover rose by 15.5 percent to €97.6 million. As previously reported, the Italian group's sales would have risen by 18 percent ...
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Nigura, Europe Lead Moulin Sales Gain
Fresh off its failed bid for Cole National, and reportedly hoping to conclude a different deal in the retail business within the next three months, Moulin International announced that sales for the six months ended June 30 increased by 13.7 percent to HK$685.7 million (€71.5m-$87.9m). The revenue increase was attributed ...
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Company-owned Brands Drive Arts Optical's Growth
These brands ? notably Stepper, Cindy and Sakura ? still comprise only a small portion of the Hong Kong-based company's overall sales, but their revenues increased by 53 percent to HK$23.6 million (€2.5m-$3m) for the six months ended June 30. Europe accounted for 46 percent of this turnover, as compared ...
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Net Loss Shrinks At Swank, Margin Too
Swank's turnover declined by 3.5 percent to HK$98.7 million (€10.3m-$12.7m) for the six months ended June 30, but the net loss narrowed to HK$1.8 million (€188,000-$231,000) as against HK$9.8 million in the year-ago period. A small decrease in orders resulted in low capacity utilization, causing a lower gross margin of ...
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Suter Raises Capacity For His Axxess Molds
MoldSolutions, a recently established Swiss company, is raising from 300 to 900 units the daily production rate of its Axxess molds for the production of spectacle lenses, adding two production lines in response to high demand from lens casters for an OEM product that holds out a claim to the ...
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Luxottica Wins The Bid For Cole National
Luxottica is not giving out any comments on what it plans to do with Cole National before it closes its acquisition, probably toward the end of the year. In its discussions with the US Federal Trade Commission, which may lead the group to divest some stores, Luxottica has committed itself ...
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Cooper Acquires Ocular Sciences
CooperVision becomes the world's third-largest contact lens company, with 2004 revenues projected at $730 million, through the acquisition of Ocular Sciences. CVI's parent, The Cooper Companies, has agreed to pay about $1.2 billion, half in cash and half in shares, to take over Ocular at a price of $44.00 a ...
