Latest Headlines – Page 224
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Fielmann Buys Another Dutch Chain, Reports Double-digit Gains
Fielmann has acquired another chain of optical stores in the Netherlands, Groenveld Brillen en Contaclenzen of Rotterdam, retroactive to last July 1, taking its turnover in the country up to an annualized level of about 8 million DM (e4m-$3.5m). With a network of 5 stores, Groenveld had a net profit ...
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Afflelou's Acquisition Of Lissac Is Stalled
A vast majority of the 70-plus opticians affiliated with the French Lissac chain of 124 optical stores plan to request at the end of this month a court injunction for the nomination of a new general manager of their franchisor, unless the situation gets clarified by then. As reported, Lissac ...
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De Rigo Is Flat On A Comparable Basis
De Rigo recorded a sales increase of 40.9 percent in the first 9 months of this year, reaching a level of 666.4 billion lire (e344.2m-$293.6m), but the turnover would have been flat in constant currencies and without the contribution of new operations such as General Optica, the Spanish optical chain ...
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Dollond & Aitchinson May Roll Out A New Suburban Store Format
Dollond & Aitchinson's success with its new 3,000-square-foot flagship store in Birmingham, which is located on the edge of the city, is leading the UK chain owned by De Rigo to explore opportunities for similar investments in other suburban locations. The store was inaugurated last May, coinciding with the chain's ...
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Boots Claims World Leadership In Progressive Contact Lenses
Boots Opticians claims to have become the gobal leader for progressive contact lenses, selling more than any other optical chain in the world, following the launch of its private brand of Near & Far varifocal contact lenses. CIBA Vision is said to be the supplier. The British chain, which remains ...
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Randazzo Expands In Northern Italy
The Italian Randazzo retail group is strengthening its presence in the Northern part of the country with the opening of 2 new outlets for eyewear and contact lenses. One is located in the Città Fiera shopping mall of Udine, the other one in downtown Monza, near Milan. Recently, the chain ...
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Bushnell Reorganizes Its European Operations After Many Acquisitions
Joe Messner, the American executive who led the management buyout of Bushnell in August of 1999, is promoting the adoption of best practice criteria to optimize the synergies among its numerous properties including Bollé, the French-based firm acquired last February, and Serengeti, the American sunglass company that it added to ...
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Marcolin Reports Higher Sales But Lower Margins
Marcolin reports a pre-tax profit of 13,521 million lire (e7m-$6m) on revenues of 175,466 million lire (e90.6m-$77.3m) for the 9-month period ended Sept. 30, indicating a gross operating margin of 12.7 percent and a pre-tax margin of 7.9 percent. Comparable figures are not available for the same period one year ...
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Safilo Expands To Cope With Demand
Safilo is making many new investments on the production and sales front. The Italian company, which added 500 new employees to its payroll sofar this year, is doubling the production capacity of its main factory at Longarone and opening a new one at Ormotz in Slovenia to cope with rising ...
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Sola Invests On Polycarbonate
The board Sola International has set aside an investment budget of $25-30 million to help the company obtain in the next couple of years a world market share in polycarbonate ophthalmic lenses that compares with the relatively strong position that the group already enjoys with C39-based organic lenses. The first ...
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Hoya Pushes The Lab Business Worldwide
Hoya will establish more laboratories around the world. It's setting up its 5th Japanese lab in the Kyushu area. The recent establishment of various labs in Europe and the acquisition last April of ORI's labs in the USA have contributed to boost its sales in all the major areas of ...
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Nickel Decision Is Now Due On Dec. 14
The new European regulations for evaluating the risk factor for the nickel in spectacle frames should be voted at a session of the European Standardization Committee (CEN), scheduled for next Dec. 13-14. Unless the Danish delegation blocks the decision, the new technical norm should no longer make use of corundum, ...
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Italian Consumers Shop Sunglasses - Based On Quality And Looks
About 26.3 million Italians, representing no less than 54 percent of the Italian population aged 20 to 45, wear more or less occasionally sunglasses, based on a survey conducted by the European Sunglass Association (ESA) and ANFAO, the Italian optical industry association. While the average Italian consumer spends a maximum ...
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L'amy Acquires Grasset
L'Amy, the recently reorganized French eyewear group, has taken over a smaller competitor, Lunettes Grasset et Associés, reinforcing its leadership in France and coming closer to its corporate goal of reaching an annual turnover of at least 700 million French francs (e107m-$88m) within the next few years. The two companies ...
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Luxottica Nearly Doubled Its Own Net Margin To 10.1% In The Third Quarter
The world's leading manufacturer of eyewear frames more than doubled its earnings in the 3rd quarter ended Sept. 30, reflecting mainly the effects of Ray-Ban's quick integration into group operations and of a stronger integration of LensCrafters within the group's central management structure. The group reported today a fantastic ...
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Safilo Achieves 30.4% Growth In Sales
Safilo ended the 3rd quarter of 2000 with turnover up 21.5% to 280.8 billion lire (e145m-$120.2m), contributing to a still impressive 30.4 percent growth in the group's turnover in the first 9 months, which now stand at 961.7 billion lire (e496.7m-$411.8m). The net profit has increased by 32 percent in ...
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Oakley Reports Many Positive Figures
One of the most interesting items from the financial report for the 3rd quarter ended Sept. 30 is the fact that sales outside the USA have broken through the $50 million mark. At $52,076,000, they almost caught up with Oakley's US turnover of $54,968,000 in the quarter, and they will ...
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Essilor Launches High-index Lenses In Japan, Buys Back Saint-gobain's Stake
The new joint venture between Essilor and Nikon, which should break even this year, is launching now in Japan an organic lens with an index of 1.74, the highest to have been offered sofar in the market. Manufactured at Essilor's own facilities in small quantities for the moment, the lens ...
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Sola Sunlens Has Moved To Italy
The strategic center of Sola Sunlens, the sun lens division of the American Sola group, has moved from Miami in Florida to Varese in Italy. The Miami office, which had 20 employees, has been closed, and the firm's entire sun lens business has been transferred to Varese under the management ...
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Germany's Optiker-gilde Launches Its Own Banner
The German buying group, which has 362 affiliated optical retailers, is launching a new logo and its first banner, which is expected to be adopted gradually by the majority of them in one form or another. Right now, they have no common corporate identity, although they purchase many items through ...
