Latest Headlines – Page 229
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Iso Approves Certottica's Nickel Test, While The White Bronze Alternative Gains Recognition
At its latest Apr. 16 meeting in Shanghai, the International Standards Organization (ISO) adopted with very few changes the method devised by the Italian Certottica institute to measure the quantity of nickel released by eyewear frames. ISO had been asked to update the ISO 12870 technical norms for eyewear frames, ...
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Two Studies Assess The British Market
A recent report on the British optical trade by Mintel indicates that internet retailers and discounters such as the Tesco supermarket chain, which is planning to set up 30-40 optical shops in the near future, could win some market shares in the UK, where retail sales of optical products increased ...
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Eyefashion 2000 Gets Mixed Reviews
The new London optical show, sponsored by the British Ophthalmic Exhibitors Association (OEA), exceeded expectations at first session from 31 March through 2 April, in spite of its bad timing, coinciding with Vision Expo in New York, a major football match and Mother's Day. Over 2,500 people attended the new ...
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New-style Cologne Fair Gets Good Marks
Several exhibitors have already committed themselves to showing again in Cologne on Apr. 27-30 next year. According to an independent survey, 97 percent of the 23,000 visitors felt that it was worthwhile for them to attend the 4-day Optica fair that ended in Cologne yesterday, in spite of the absence ...
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Bausch & Lomb Offers To Buy Wesley Jessen, Blocking Bid For Ocular Sciences
The contact lens market is moving toward greater consolidation with a potentially hostile bid by Bausch & Lomb for Wesley Jessen VisionCare, the leading American manufacturer of colored contact lenses. B&L filed the $600 million offer shortly after Wesley Jessen announced on March 20 a deal to acquire Ocular Sciences ...
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Ciba Vision Closes A German Factory
Ciba Vision is going to stop next October the production of contact lens care products for the European market at a unit in Munich that employs 87 persons. Part of the production will be moved to the company's factory in Annonay, France, creating between 30 and 34 new jobs there. ...
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Specsavers Plans Major Grow In Holland
After some adjustments, a successful pilot test with 3 shops in Holland has led Specsavers to budget the addition of about 55 new stores in that country by the end of 2001. Specsavers already has 11 stores in Ireland. The expansion makes sense for this unique British chain of joint ...
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Afflelou Considers Equity Change
Sounds like the Lamy family's recent buyback of L'Amy Eyewear. French press reports indicate that Alain Afflelou, chairman of the French chain of optical stores that bears his own name, could regain its control before the end of April with the support of new financial backers. In 1997, a group ...
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French Low-priced Chain Is Set For Growth, ?And For Electronic Shopping
Tati Optic, a new French chain of low-priced optical stores, is set to grow to a network of 15 outlets by the end of this year, and then reach a total of 40 units in France and its overseas territories by June of 2002, following a successful pilot run with ...
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De Rigo Reports A Profit For 1999
The costly acquisition of the Dollond & Aitchinson chain in the UK, currency exchange losses and extraordinary charges didn't prevent the Italian eyewear producer from posting a net profit of 2,722 million lire ($1.4m) in 1999, but it was still down 69.5 percent from the previous year's level. Without goodwill ...
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Safilo Raises Net By 42%, Denies Rumors Of Takeover Plans By Luxottica
Safilo experienced an exceptional 42 percent growth in net earnings to 66.2 billion ( 34.18 million) in 1999, before an exceptional gain from deferred taxes of 6.2 billion lire (e m-$m) which brought the bottomline up to 72.5 billion lire (e m-$m). It was accompanied by a nice increase in ...
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Marcolin Reports 15% Profit Increase, Counts On Its House Brands
The Marcolin group managed to raise its net profit by 15 percent last year to 8 billion lire (e m-$m), and it's not expected to change much this year, due to the growing downward pressure on prices and margins being exerted by the advent of the euro. In the longer ...
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Luxottica Goes On The Milan Bourse And Calls For A 2-for-1 Stock Split
Italy's leading eyewear group is quoted only on the New York Stock Exchange since 1990. On May 10, Luxottica's general meeting will vote to float the group on the Milan stock exchange, considering that it's now part of a broader European group of publicly traded firms. At the ...
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Ittierre's New Eyewear Firm Is Born
Last March 17, Itierre Holding, an Italian fashion group involved mainly in the clothing business through a number of major brands and quoted on the Milan stock exchange, finally completed its entry into the eyewear sector with the merger of the two firms it had acquired last year for 18.3 ...
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Italy's Industry Limits Its Export Losses
According to the latest available figures, which go through last September, the Italian eyewear industry, which exports 70 percent of its own production, has begun to contain the heavy losses suffered on its export markets up until last August. The rate of decline has in fact softened from 10 to ...
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Analysts Have Mixed Views About Essilor, Which Looks At The Long Term
Essilor International's stockmarket quotation in Paris remains stagnant below e300 a share in spite of its recent confirmation of better-than-expected financial results for 1999. One of the reasons may be the new realignment of publicly quoted firms across Europe, which has reduced Essilor from a high-cap to a mid-cap company ...
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Internet Retailer Distributes Lumen Eyewear In North America
Lumen, the 2-year-old affordable sports eyewear brand of Austria's Metzler Design Brillenvertrieb, will be distributed in North America under an exclusive 5-year agreement by xdogs.com, a US importer and e-tailer of other trendy European sports and outdoor brands such as Berghaus outdoor clothing and Oxbow surfwear. Besides putting the ...
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Mido Celebrates 30th Anniversary
The Mido fair in Milan is celebrating the event next May 5-8 with a special edition that will welcome 100 new exhibitors. The largest eyewear show in the world - with 38,000 visitors in 1999 - will showcase the products of a total of 1,100 exhibitors from 34 countries. Each ...
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Grandvision Grows Faster Than Fielmann
GrandVision has hired Francesco Zanotto as its chief buyer, creating a new position within the French company's purchasing and distribution apparatus and underscoring its ambition to beat Fielmann someday. Zanotto worked for Fielmann for 15 years, most recently as manager of its Louvre production and trading subsidiary in Switzerland, where ...
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Fielmann Reports Improved Results
The leading German optical retail chain raised its pre-tax earnings by 18.4 percent to 122.3 million DM (e62.5m-$60.1m) in 1999, representing a nice margin of almost 10 percent on non-consolidated sales of 1,270 million DM (e650-$625m), which include franchisees' sales, agents' sales and sales of lenses manufactured in-house to Fielmann's ...
