Latest Headlines – Page 28
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ArticleIs Marcolin going to change hands?
According to insider information leaked to Bloomberg, PAI Partners, the majority shareholder of Marcolin Group, is looking to sell its stake in the company and has appointed Goldman Sachs to gauge the market’s interest in a deal that would value the eyewear manufacturer at approximately €1.35 billion. The French-based ...
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ArticleAkoni Group puts focus on craftsmanship-loving opticians and consumers
In the wake of the recent Silmo show in Paris, where the company was exhibiting its eyewear collections – house brand Akoni Eyewear and licensed fashion brands Balmain and Valentino – for the first time, we talked with Rosario Toscano, CEO of Akoni Group, about the DNA and the development ...
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Article10-year old Swiss Eyewear Group has passed the 20 million pairs’ mark
Swiss Eyewear Group, the eyewear company behind the INVU brand of polarized sunglasses, has announced that it has sold over 20 million pairs since the creation of the company ten years ago. As reported then in Eyewear Intelligence, the company was founded by a group of former senior managers of ...
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ArticleKering Eyewear fueled by Maui Jim in Q3 as comparable growth drops
Kering Eyewear was again the best-performing unit of Kering in the third quarter of this year, and the only one that posted a sales increase, as the French luxury group’s fashion brands were severely hit by the general slowdown in the global luxury market, particularly in Europe and North America. ...
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ArticleEssilux reports Q3 slowdown, opens new Thai mega plant
EssilorLuxottica has reported a 1.6 percent year-on-year decrease in Q3 revenue to €6,294 million as the relative weakness of its sun retail business spread beyond the North American market and Asia-Pacific provided a tougher comparison base in the period. In constant currencies, the group’s top line however increased by 5.2 ...
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ArticleFittingbox acquires main VTO challenger
Fittingbox, the global leader and a pioneer in eyewear virtual-try-on (VTO) services, has announced that it was acquiring its main challenger, Ditto Technologies, from U.S.-based Luna Solutions. It is the first acquisition by Fittingbox since the creation of the company in 2006. “We will have the largest customer portfolio in ...
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ArticleJINS ends fiscal year on high note
Japanese-based retail group JINS has reported a 16.0 percent year-on-year increase in Q4 revenue to 19.7 billion Japanese yen (€125m), accelerating from the previous quarter when sales rose by 10.4 percent versus Q3 2022. The Q4 sales hike was driven by an 11.0 percent growth in domestic revenue to JPY ...
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ArticleHakim Group doubled footprint in the last two years
The just-released financial results of Hakim Group show that the U.K. group of independent opticians has more than doubled its annual revenues and almost doubled its retail footprint between 2020 and 2022. The group has significantly accelerated the implementation of its strategy in the U.K. and Ireland since its refinancing ...
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ArticleMaterialise to 3D-print new translucent material
Right across from the Futurology space at this year’s Silmo was a booth for Materialise, the company that supplies frames for the Futurology companies Skugga and Lexilens, not to mention Morrow Eyewear, winner of one of this year’s Silmo d’Or awards. Founded 30-odd years ago, Materialise is headquartered in Leuven, ...
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ArticleEyewear companies' average stock price down in Q3
After two consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, the average stock price of eyewear companies went down by an average 7 percent on a non-weighted basis (see chart below) in the quarter ended Sept. 30. This also marks an unusual underperformance compared with the MSCI World Index, a global index comprising ...
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ArticleLeica brings ophthalmic lenses business in-house, opens factory
Leica Eyecare, a subsidiary of Leica Camera founded in 2021, has announced the opening of its new company headquarters and production facilities in the central Hesse region, near Frankfurt, Germany. The investment follows the decision of the German group, globally famous for its premium cameras, to bring the production of ...
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ArticleItalian eyewear exports maintain momentum in Q2
ANFAO, the Italian eyewear industry association, has reported a 15.7 percent year-on-year increase in Italian eyewear exports to €2,840 million for the first half of 2023 as sales in Q2 roughly maintained the 16.7 percent growth reported for Q1. As reflected in the table below, the momentum was driven by ...
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ArticleA tour of Silmo’s Futurology
This year’s Silmo show took place over the weekend of Sept 29 to Oct. 2. In Hall 6 was the Futurology space, a showcase for the new and the innovative, curated by designer, optician and artist Sébastien Brusset. Join us for a tour of its companies and products. Laclarée The ...
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ArticleSilmo Paris kicks off post-Covid trade-show era
The organizers of Silmo Paris have announced that 31,337 people visited the last edition of the show that closed its doors on Oct.2, or 16.5 percent more than last year, confirming the visual impression that the event has almost returned to its pre-pandemic self (approximatively 35,000 visitors in 2018). A ...
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ArticlePPG partners with lens coatings’ 3Dprint start-up
PPG has announced that it has signed an exclusive agreement with Flö-Optics, a start-up specializing in additive manufacturing of ophthalmic lenses’ coatings. Under the terms of the partnership, PPG will supply its HI-GARD scratch-resistant coatings, which are said to make lenses four to six times more resistant to abrasion, to ...
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ArticleMeta and Ray-Ban beef up smart glasses with influencers in mind
Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday at the group’s developer conference the launch of the second generation of smart glasses developed in collaboration with EssilorLuxottica and its Ray-Ban brand. For this second generation of the smart glasses, the partners have significantly upgraded several key features from the initial product, the ...
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ArticleLafont celebrates French “savoir-faire”, Parisian chic and family legacy on 100th anniversary
It’s not necessarily an easy task to summarize a century of history and the essence of a company in just a few words, but when we asked Matthieu Lafont, CEO of Lafont, the answer was short and quick to come. “We are since 2023 an independent family business and eyewear ...
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ArticleItalian OEM group acquires Henry Jullien
iVisionTech, the Italian-based OEM eyewear supplier, has announced that it was acquiring French eyewear company Henry Jullien, after a competitive sale process managed by a French Commercial Court. The process followed the entry into liquidation proceedings of the L’Amy Luxe group, of which Henry Jullien was part since 2017. ...
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ArticleFrench optical market flattish in 2022, official report says
The French optical market inched up by 0.2 percent year-on-year to €7,272 million according to the new report by the national research and statistics office, the Direction de la recherche, des études, de l’évaluation et des statistiques (DREES). The small hike in market value follows two years of strong COVID-related ...
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ArticleAmazon smart eyewear range upgrade includes Safilo partnership
Amazon has announced the upgrading of its smart eyewear collection with the launch of seven new styles, including five Echo Frames models, its proprietary brand, and two designs by Carrera, a house brand of Safilo Group. It is the first time that the Italian eyewear company partners with Amazon. All ...
