Latest Headlines – Page 215
-
Article
Salmoiraghi Invests In Refractive Surgery
Italy's leading optical retail chain, Salmoiraghi & Vigano, has formed a new company, Mediservice, to invest on a series of new centers for ophthalmology and refractive surgery. The first one was inaugurated last July in Milan under the name Essevi Laser. It's a joint venture with a famous Italian ophthalmic ...
-
Article
Luxottica And Oakley Bury The Hatchet
The Goliath and the David of sports eyewear have made peace, probably because they are very useful to each other. Luxottica and Oakley struck earlier this month an original 3-year agreement that puts an end to their dispute over the pricing of Oakley eyewear. Effective immediately, the deal puts Oakley's ...
-
Article
Safilo May Move Into U.S. Retailing While It Gets Its Dior License Extended
It could not be determined yet whether Safilo has persuaded the LVMH group to allow it to sell and market also the Yves Saint Laurent eyewear collection in behalf its other major licensing partner, the Gucci Group. All we know for the moment is that the negotiations with LVMH have ...
-
Article
Bushnell Group Makes Use Of Synergies
The Bushnell Performance Optics group is beginning to take advantage of improved processes and synergies among its brands to grow its European business. Orders taken at its two contiguous Bollé and Serengeti stands at the recent Silmo fair in Paris were more than 6 times higher than those taken one ...
-
Article
Sichel & Sichel Acquires Platinum
Sichel & Sichel and Platinum are both relatively small Italian firms with complementary activities in the eyewear sector. The former, which has belonged to the Sichel family in Padua for generations, has a strong distribution base and has the exclusive distribution in Italy of Berthet Bondet and others. Platinum is ...
-
Article
Magma Buys Another Company And Gets The North Sails License
Magma Italia has signed a licensing agreement with Tomasoni Topsail, the Italian company that markets the North Sails line of apparel, for the production and distribution of sports sunglasses under that brand name. Specialized sports eyewear, Magma already has the Blackflys, Tyr Sport and Quiksilver sports eyewear lines in its ...
-
Article
Italian Frame Exports Decline By 9%, But The Euro Is Opening Up New Horizons
The negative economic cycle in some major markets, made worse by the recent terrorist and military events, has affected the Italian eyewear industry's exports this year. Frames have suffered badly, while the slowdown of the sunglass market has been softened by the fact that Luxottica has consolidated Ray-Ban's production into ...
-
Article
German Market Stagnates, Exports Decline
German opticians had predicted a slight increase in their own turnover, but they are now expecting flat sales in 2001 at best. A survey conducted in August by their trade association, ZVA, showed declines in retail sales of frames of 5.6 percent in volume and 3.6 percent in value in ...
-
Article
Equity Fund Takes Over Leybold Optics
Unaxis has sold its highly profitable Leybold Optics division for 245 million Swiss francs (e165m-$146m) to EQT Northern Europe, the private equity fund of the Swedish Wallenberg Foundation. The division generated sales of 181 million SF (e122m-$108m) in the 9 months ended Sept. 30. Members of the management ...
-
Article
Hoya Has Improved Its Margins
For the 2nd quarter ended Sept. 30, the Japanese group saw an 8.7 increase in net sales to 23,165 million yen (e198.8m-$176.4m) in its vision care operations, which include eyeglass lenses and frames. Aided by the weak yen, vision care revenues outside Japan increased by 18.6 percent to 12,395 million ...
-
Article
Hoya Delays Trivex' European Start-up
Most births are painful. Trivex, the new lens material developed by PPG Industries, has been hit by initial production capacity and yield problems that have prevented one of its first licensees, Hoya, from introducing it on the European market this fall, as previously planned. Hoya, which calls the material Phoenix ...
-
Article
Bayer Starts Co-branding Its Makrolon Polycarbonate
Bayer, the world's second-largest manufacturer of polycarbonate after General Electric, plans to double its annual capacity to 1.4 million tons by 2005. Makrolon is Bayer's second-largest category of polycarbonate, and the German chemical group wants to market now its high-tech lens-quality variety in association with some major customers. The ...
-
Article
Coopervision Claims A 6.3% World Market Share In Contact Lenses
CooperVision (CVI) expects to maintain good operating margins next year, although its gross margins will be reduced as distributors in France, Germany and Japan will generate a higher percentage of its total revenues. In the year ended last Oct. 31, this division, by far the biggest one within the Cooper ...
-
Article
Trenti Bucks The Trend With A 20% Sales Increase
Trenti Industria Occhiali, Italy's oldest producer specializing in children's eyewear, was among the 8 winners of the traditional gold awards bestowed on the best exhibitors at the last Silmo fair in Paris. The company employs 45 people, and was founded in 1959 by its current owner, Walter Da Rin. ...
-
Article
Fielmann's Growth Rate Declines
The leading German optical retailer raised its sales by just over 4 percent on a comparable basis in the first 9 months of this year, but the growth rate declined in the 3rd quarter and it's expected to be nearly flat in the 4th one. The group is now budgeting ...
-
Article
Pearle Europe Acquires Polish Chain
Cole National announced this week that its minority owned European offshoot, Pearle Europe, has purchased from GrandVision the Polish Vision Express network of 27 stores, describing it as the leading factor in the country. Mel Groot, who has now formally become CEO of Pearle Europe, is planning to open 4 ...
-
Article
Luxottica Raises Operating Margins Up To 16.1% At Retail And 25.5% At Wholesale
While Luxottica's war with Oakley takes new aspects with action in court (see News Briefs in this issue), the Italian giant announces the establishment of a 75 percent sales subsidiary in Poland. In outlining its results for the 3rd quarter, Luxottica has also announces the acquisition from Charmant of the ...
-
Article
Safilo Lost Momentum In September, But The 9-month Results Were Still Ok
The slowdown in demand triggered by the international situation has led Safilo to reduce its daily eyewear production for the moment from 35,000 to 33,000 pairs. The group has decided to close its Padua factory from Friday, Dec. 7 to Monday, Dec. 10, after a religious holiday on Dec. 8. ...
-
Article
De Rigo Reports On D&A's Turnaround
Dollond & Aitchison, the British retail chain of the Italian eyewear group, showed the positive effects of its recent reorganization by raising its sales on a same-store basis by 6 percent in the first 9 months of this year and by 5.9 percent in the 3rd quarter. Not including its ...
-
Article
Marcolin Raises Sales By 26%
The Italian company's consolidated turnover rose by 26 percent to 215.8 billion lire (e111.5m-$98.3m) in the first 9 months of this year, thanks in part to the acquisition of Creative Optics in the USA, a country which came to represent 39.4 percent of total revenues. Its merger into Marcolin USA ...
