Latest Headlines – Page 193
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Guildinvest Lures Franchisees To Lynx
Guildinvest, the large French voluntary group that acquired the Lynx Optique banner last October, has slashed from 9 down to 6.1 percent the fees that franchisees must pay to carry it. That's about half of what Alain Afflelou charges to its own franchisees and 20 percent below the franchising fees ...
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Rev Voluntary Group Goes New Ways
Rêv, a French buying group with nearly 280 affiliated stores, is undergoing a wave of changes under its new president and controlling shareholder, Caroline Ricq, who succeeded Robert Foucher, the former president, in March. She intends to improve the French voluntary group's image, sales conditions and positioning by redefining the ...
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Essilor Acquires Ltl In Italy And One More Lab In The Usa
Essilor has acquired LTL, an Italian distributor of finished lenses, for an undisclosed amount in a move designed to strengthen its position in the complex Italian market, which is dominated by numerous small players who have close relationships with local opticians. Officials of Signet Armorlite, which distributes its products through ...
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Bmc Industries Sells Vision-ease
BMC Industries and its subsidiaries in the USA have filed a request for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after repeated attempts to restructure the group's bulging debt. At the same time, BMC has announced that it has agreed to sell substantially all the domestic and foreign assets of its Vision-Ease lens ...
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Sola Feels It Can Outperform The Market
SOLA International expects the global lens market to grow by only 2-3 percent this year, with relatively constant volumes in mature markets of North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. Emerging markets like China and India should provide double-digit growth in units but average selling prices will probably decline, resulting in ...
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Zeiss Gets A More Modern Status
Carl Zeiss became a limited partnership (AG) on July 1, financially separate from Schott Glas, but still owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The long-awaited change of status will facilitate the German group's business abroad, making it more flexible and introducing international criteria of corporate governance, but the management has ...
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Trivex' Sales Double
PPG Industries says sales of its new Trivex lens material more than doubled in 2003, the second year that it has been available, accounting for 3 percent of the global ophthalmic lens market. That compares with 37 percent for C39 plastic materials, 36 percent for mineral glass, 11 percent for ...
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Numbers Drop At Elegance
Elegance International's sales dipped by 14.6 percent to HK$327.7 million (€34.0m-$42.0m), and net profit fell by 66.0 percent to HK$19.0 million (€2.0m-$2.4m) for the year ended March 31. The group cited SARS, the invasion of Iraq, the depreciation of the US dollar, increases in costs of raw materials and rising ...
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De Rigo Wants To Work Together With Viva, Possibly Through A Limited Merger
Announced on the first day of the MIDO show last month, the news of a letter of intent signed between the two big groups from Italy and the USA sent shock-waves through the fair. A very concise and cautious joint statement said they had struck a ?non-binding? agreement to ?explore ...
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Luxottica Proposes To Pay 4% More For Cole National
Cole National announced yesterday its approval of an amendment to its merger agreement with Luxottica under which the Italian group's original cash offer of $22.50 a share would in be raised by 4 percent for each year prior to the closing of the deal, provided the agreement is approved by ...
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Grandvision Buys A Couple Of French Cooperative Banners
Shortly after coming under the control of HAL Trust, which controls many other integrated and voluntary optical retail chains all over Europe, GrandVision has signed a letter of intent to take over the Visual banner, which is being used by 275 independent opticians all over France, for €10 million. It ...
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Boots Opticians Improves Profits By 65%
Boots Opticians' sales were affected by the ?very competitive? markets in core optics during the financial year ended last March 31, with its LASIK business still suffering from the impact of negative publicity on the effects of laser treatment, but their operating profit grew by 65 percent to £12.8 million ...
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Safilo Recovers From A Difficult Year
Safilo reports a 6.4 percent increase in consolidated turnover to €260 million for the first quarter ended last March 31, with a 13.2 percent increase in local currencies, driven by major sales gains in North America and the Far East. The gross operating margin (Ebitda) reached 15.5 percent, Safilo says, ...
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Moulin Consolidates In Germany
Moulin International has decided to close down Metzler International's office at Mühlacker by the middle of 2005, involving the layoff of 34 employees, and to consolidate all its German operations in Düsseldorf, on the site of NiGuRa Optik, the former subsidiary of Rodenstock that was sold last year to Moulin ...
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Ambitious Business Plan For Rodenstock
Brought under new ownership and under new management a few months ago, Rodenstock has an ambition to become a world leader in certain selected segments of the optical market and not worse than #2 or #3 in others, through organic growth or through acquisitions. The market territories in which the ...
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Silhouette Works Closely With Essilor On Sunwear
As one way to celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, Silhouette is organizing a series of ?Silhouette Sunny Days? of up to one week and more extensive ?Silhouette Sun Festivals,? running up to 3 weeks in length, this summer all over Europe. Using ingenious new presentation fixtures and new direct ...
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Hoya Launches A New Progressive Lens Technology
The Japanese company claims that its international launch of a new Hoyalux ID technology, which was made at the MIDO show in Milan last month after its earlier introduction in Japan, sets the stage for a new generation of progressive lenses for a more demanding consumer. Using equipment installed at ...
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Italy Shows Signs Of Recovery After A Disappointing 2003
According to ANFAO, the Italian eyewear industry association, provisional figures for the 1st quarter indicate a sales increase of a few percentage points year on year and leading to some cautious optimism about a possible turnaround for Italian eyewear in the USA, in Japan and in emerging markets such as ...
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Buyers Meet Italian Eyewear Producers In Venice
A few weeks before MIDO, a group of Italian eyewear manufacturers from the Cadore district invited a select group of 32 buyers from 13 European countries, including Russia and Turkey, to a workshop in Venice, like in previous years. This mini 2-day trade fair organized by the Belluno eyewear association, ...
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Venice - A Brand Name With A Difference
Italy's cities of art have discovered their potential as brands that can be licensed out to bring revenues into the city coffers. The members of the city council of Venice who came up with the idea of licensing this magic name, full of history and beauty, and Philippe Starck, the ...
