Latest Headlines – Page 216
-
Article
Rodenstock Steps Into Retailing
Far from pretending that Luxottica's and De Rigo's vertical integration policy is the right strategy to gain market shares in distant markets, Rodenstock's subsidiary in the UK has acquired Allders Opticians, an independent chain of 15 optical retail shops in the region north of London. Steve Ashdown will continue to ...
-
Article
Boots Opticians Doubles Performance
Now under new management, Boots Opticians doubled its operating profit to £2.8 million (e4.5m-$4m) in the first half ended Sept. 30, in spite of a 1.1 percent sales decline to 96.9 million (e155.3m-$137m). Britain's leading optical chain raised from 1 to 4 the number of its laser eye surgery clinics ...
-
Article
Essilor Sells Its 44% Stake In Logo
The disposal marks another important step in Essilor International's concentration on its core lens business. Essilor has sold its 44 percent share in Logo, one of France's largest eyewear manufacturers, for a still undisclosed amount. The buyer is the family of Vincent Darnaud, which already controlled Logo and is a ...
-
Article
Zeiss Merges Its Ophthalmic Systems With Asclepion And Reports Record Results
The reorganization of Zeiss' vision care activities goes on. The Carl Zeiss Group has signed an agreement in principle to merge its ophthalmology equipment business unit, including its ophthalmic systems operations in Jena, Germany and Dublin, California, with Asclepion-Meditec, a public German company based also in Jena. Under the ...
-
Article
Zarrella Is Back At Bausch & Lomb As Chairman And Ceo
Ronald L. Zarrella returns to Bausch & Lomb as chairman and CEO after 7 years with General Motors, where he has been replaced by Bob Lutz, the former Chrysler executive, in his latest post as president of North American operations. Zarrella, who is 52 years old, had worked at B&L ...
-
Article
Sola Continues To Improve
Sola International's sales in the USA have come back to normal after a 15-20 percent dip during the week of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Sales are expected to be somewhat depressed in the sunlens sector and in North America generally, but the management feels that they problems are ?manageable? ...
-
Article
The Italian Eyewear Industry Forecasts A Fall In Last Quarter
Italian eyewear manufacturers are expecting a fall in business for the last quarter of 2001, due to the international crisis, but officials of the Italian optical industry association, Anfao, state that the reduction will not be severe. The downturn had already set in before September, but judging from the latest ...
-
Article
Attendance Dropped By 16.09% At Silmo
The initial tally had showed an even more serious 19 percent decrease. The total number of visitors at the Paris show came out to be 22,181 after a finer count of their registration, or 16.09 percent below the score of one year ago. In the aftermath of the Sept. ...
-
Article
Esa Thinks Global, Weighs New Projects
The European Sunglass Association, which counts some heavyweights among its 80 members, is working with the Sunglass Association of America and with similar associations in Taiwan, Japan and Australia to establish a world federation that will help promote quality sunglasses and foster the common international standards. ESA's board has ...
-
Article
The Italian And French Eyewear Districts Have Been Working Together
A 2-year-old transnational project financed by the European Union for cooperation between two mountain zones, both renowned for their eyewear industry, is about to draw to a close. The Cadore Valley in Italy's Belluno province and the Haut-Jura national park north of Geneva in France have started an interesting cooperation, ...
-
Article
Metzler, Filos And Moulin Form The New European Eyewear Group
European Eyewear AG is the tentative name chosen for the new holding company, being registered in Stuttgart, that will combine all the assets of Germany's Metzler and Italy's Filos Group, in addition to some of Moulin International's operations outside Asia. The key word is critical mass. In 2002, the new ...
-
Article
Vittorio Tabacchi Is Negotiating The Ysl License And Planning A Future Ipo, His Brother Dino Will Keep His Safilo Shares,
Vittorio, chairman and CEO of Safilo, had one more meeting at the Silmo fair in Paris last week to try to persuade LVMH executives that Safilo's planned acquisition of the Yves Saint Laurent brand would not affect sales of its Christian Dior collection, licensed from LVMH. The YSL ...
-
Article
Ferre License May Migrate To Fast-growing Allison Soon
Allison's turnover for the first half of 2001 amounted to 25.8 million euros, not far off from the e27.9 million generated for the whole of the year 2000, with a 5.5 percent profit margin. The Italian manufacturer, which is part of the ITR Holding group, attributes its excellent results to ...
-
Article
Ic Optics Looks To The East
IC Optics closed the first half of 2001 with turnover of 25.8 million euros, up 25 percent as compared with the same period last year, and a pre-tax profit margin of almost 4 percent. The Italian firm has revised its growth forecast for the full year, as a result of ...
-
Article
France's Largest Retail Cooperative May Expand Into Hearing Aids And Belgium
La Guilde des Lunetiers, which groups 642 retailers operating 873 optical retail stores all over France, has approved in principle the project of a merger with Gipa, a cooperative of 140 hearing aid laboratories, trading under the Entendre banner, which have an estimated national market share of 10 percent. Gipa's ...
-
Article
Carrefour Emphasizes Brands
With their higher-end models presented in closed glass windows inside the store, branded eyewear frames have come to represent about half of the total assortment in a new format of L'Optique Carrefour. Launched last July at en enlarged 200-square-meter shop in the Every II shopping mall near Paris, the new ...
-
Article
Polaroid's Bankruptcy Has No Impact For Now On Its Healthy Sunglass Business
Swiss-based Polaroid Eyewear and other non-US subsidiaries of Polaroid Corp. are not involved in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of their US-based parent company, requested last Oct. 12 because of ongoing problems in its core photographic business and total debts of about $950 million. Polaroid cut its staff from 8,800 to ...
-
Article
Oakley's Growth Is Flattening Out
With sales up 6.5 percent to a new record of $114 million, Oakley performed relatively well in the 3rd quarter ended Sept. 30, despite the termination of its long-standing relationship with Sunglass Hut, but the immediate look is somber. The management is anticipating sales of only about $90 million in ...
-
Article
Indo Improves Margins, But Sales Decline
Consolidated sales declined by 9 percent to 10,962 million pesetas (e65.9m-$59.9m) in the 1st half of this year for the leading Spanish eyewear group, but they would have declined only by 3 percent excluding the revenues of Laem, a hearings aid operation sold in September of last year. Indo ...
-
Article
The Fedon Group Doubles Its Net Margin To 10.7%, And Capitalizes On Sports Clubs
Fedon's net profit for the first half of 2001 amounted to 10.7 percent of revenues, twice the level of the year-ago period. The world's leading producer of eyewear cases had already announced a 24.6 percent increase in revenues to 34.5 million euros (see EyeWear Intelligence of Sept. 3). Operating profit ...
