Latest Headlines – Page 220
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Nikon Lenses Target 5% Of European Market Through Novisia By 2004
That's the ambitious goal set by Nikon and Essilor International, which formed a strategic worldwide 50-50 partnership for Nikon's line of lenses in January of 2000, and there are indications that the well-balanced high-tech line stands to reach a minimum 1 percent market penetration after 12 months in each country ...
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Sola Sees Improving Margins
Sola International is anticipating further gains in profitability this year, but no major increases in revenues. The portion taken up by value-added products in its turnover should rise further from the 71 percent rate of the 4th quarter ended March 31. Furthermore, the massive relocation of manufacturing operations to low-cost ...
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Vermeer Is Vistakon's New European Chief
Fred Vermeer has replaced Paul Donald as chairman of Vistakon Europe. He had previously run Vistakon's Australian-based Asia/Pacific operations. Donald has moved to Johnson & Johnson's world headquarters in Florida to act as president of Vistakon's global franchise team. Meanwhile, Vistakon has finally settled a 6-year-old class action suit ...
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Cologne Optica Fair Moves To February
The Cologne eyewear show, which ended Monday, has announced two major changes. Firstly, Optica’s dates are being moved forward from next year on, with a Feb. 15-18 schedule for 2001, ending a closeness to Mido that has only led to a massive departure of large and small Italian exhibitors. Secondly, ...
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Grandvision May Sell Its Photo Business
GrandVision's management will neither confirm or deny a report that it plans to sell its two highly profitable chains of 474 photo shops in France, PhotoService and PhotoStation, to the British CinVen investment fund. Company executives indicate that a formal announcement may be made at the French retail group's annual ...
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Specsavers Opens Large Lens Lab As Sales And Market Shares Continue To Grow
A new state-of-the-art lens processing laboratory, with a weekly capacity to manufacture more than 40,000 lenses, was inaugurated by Specsavers Opticians on 22,000 square feet near Southampton International Airport a few weeks ago. The lab will initially operate at half of its capacity. It will gradually increase the output rate, ...
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Essilor Buys D&A's Labs In The Uk, Reports On The First Quarter
The Essilor group has agreed to take over through its BBGR subsidiary the two prescription lens laboratories owned by Dollond & Aitchison, the British optical retail chain acquired by De Rigo a few years ago, including their staff. The price of the transaction has not been disclosed. Both parties ...
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Hoya Raises Vision Care Sales Sharply
Like Essilor, which is making major investments in laboratoris also in the USA and Australia, Hoya is banking on its own growing stable of labs around the world to push its value-added eyeglass lenses. Yet, extraordinary charges for the reorganization of the 13 firms in its Hoya Optical Laboratories business ...
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Luxottica Reaches 12.6% Net Margin
Luxottica also reduced its debt by 94.4 million euros to e813.8 million in the first 3 months of this year, before the heavy financial outlay for the takeover of Sunglass Hut, the world's largest sunglass chain. Quarterly figures show a 9.7 percent gain in consolidated net revenues to e664.1 million, ...
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Safilo's Net Soars By 79% In Quarter
Safilo posted a 35.8 per cent sales increase in the first quarter 2001 to 232.9 million euros, compared with the same period last year. Operating profits grew by 51 per cent to e38.9 million, while net profits soared by a staggering 79 percent to reach e22 million, a ratio of ...
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De Rigo Raises Sales By 18.4% In First Quarter
No profit figures were given yet, but the group's sales increased by 18.4 percent to 255.7 billion lire in the period (e132.1m-$119.1m), or 19.8 percent in local currencies, thanks to the full consolidation of the General Optica chain in Spain and to the EID joint venture with Prada reach cruising ...
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Fast-growing Oakley Expands Product Lines, Tests Out Factory Outlets
Oakley expects its total sales to grow by only 25 percent this year, but in the 1st quarter they were up by 49 percent to $93,831,000. US sales rose by 40 percent to $46.9 million, led by a 42 percent increase in sales to Sunglass Hut. Sales outside the USA ...
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Franck Bolle Launches Weps Line
Targeting youngsters between 15 and 25, the new WEPS line of sunglasses, goggles and other sports eyewear will become available in selected stores in France and other countries this month. The new line is marketed by BAB Sport, a French/Swiss firm owned in equal proportions by Franck Bollé and two ...
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Eschenbach Penetrates Eastern Europe
Germany's largest supplier of frames achieved a total turnover of DM 160 million (e82m-$74m) in 2000, an increase of 11 per cent over the previous year, generating a net profit margin of more than 10 percent. Some of the growth were due to steady progress in Eastern Europe, Russia included, ...
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Ciba Vision Attacks Coopervision Over Tinted Lenses
Wesley Jessen and its new parent company, CIBA Vision, have launched lawsuits against CooperVision in the USA, the UK, German and France, charging that the latter's disposable cosmetic contact lenses infringe on patents protecting WJ's FreshLook technology. Pointing out that it had thoroughly studied the various patents involved in the ...
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Bausch & Lomb Reports Mediocre Results
Bausch & Lomb is not yet out of the bush. The company reports a net profit of only $6.2 million for the 1st quarter ended March 31, down from $23.9 million in the year-ago period, excluding extraordinary items. In the latest period, those items consisted of restructuring charges and asset ...
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The Usa Wants To Certify Made In Italy
The US eyewear industry's official body, Vision Council of America, will send a delegation to Italy on May 8 to meet representatives of Certottica, the Italian eyewear certification institute, in order to discuss implementation of the agreement signed during Vision Expo in New York. Considering the huge numbers of counterfeit ...
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Pearle Acquires Another Dutch Chain
HAL Investments, the investment company that owns 67.6 percent of Pearle Europe, is set to acquire Verenigde Bedrijven Groeneveld, a diversified Dutch group that owns, among other things, a chain of 120 shops throughout the Netherlands that sell optical products and hearing aids under the Groeneveld Opticiens and Schoonnberg Hoortoestellen ...
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Sunglass Hut, Now A Property Of Luxottica, Improved Its Results Last Year
Luxottica's takeover of Sunglass Hut values the US company at only 6 times its operating profit before interest and tax (Ebitda) and 76 percent of annual sales, based on the latter's results for the fiscal year ended last Feb. 3, which were reported last March 22. That doesn't include ...
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Tabacchi Is Ready To Raise His Stake In Safilo, Whose Results Are Up Strongly
Consob, the watchdog authority of the Milan stock exchange, is expected to decide shortly whether Vittorio Tabacchi or his family holding company, Fimit, must launch a bid to redeem all the shares he doesn't yet own in Safilo - directly or indirectly - following recent changes in Fimit's equity structure. ...
