Latest Headlines – Page 31
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ArticleAlain Afflelou banner posts 8% growth in Q3, Spain up double digits
The Afflelou Group has reported a 4.2 percent year-on-year increase in external sales to €220 million (see table) for its third quarter, ended April 30. On a like-for-like basis, they were up by 5.1 percent versus FY 2022. The company commented that the quarterly sales uptick reflected higher volumes rather ...
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ArticleDe Rigo celebrates 40 years of Police
The De Rigo group celebrated the 40th anniversary of its house-brand Police with a large-scale and festive event in Rome on Wednesday last week. Dubbed “Daring Evolution”, the anniversary party gathered more than 500 guests, including De Rigo’s subsidiaries, distributors, licensing partners and customers, coming from over 80 countries around ...
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ArticleVuzix OEM consumer smart eyewear business enters countdown phase
Vuzix’ management was not short of images, martial or witty, to describe the state of its business to its shareholders during the annual meeting held at the group’s headquarters last week: shipping boats, battleships, a dog and even a frog helped to convey the company’s expectations for its imminent takeoff, ...
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ArticleEU publishes alarming counterfeiting survey, ramps up IP platform
The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the European office in charge of intellectual property (IP) and anti-counterfeiting, has announced that it is preparing the launch of a new open-source and blockchain-based platform which is aimed at ensuring product authenticity through information sharing at every step of the supply chain. ...
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ArticleMore “boutique” and more lenses on Mister Spex roadmap
2022 was a mixed year for Mister Spex. While the German-based retailer’s sales kept growing relatively fast – by 8 percent overall and by 11 percent in Germany – profit ratios remained in the red. This led the company to launch a cost-reduction plan in September 2022 and an announcement ...
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ArticleSynsam frames production reshoring delivers 32% CO2 reduction (LCA)
In its annual sustainability report released a few weeks ago, leading Nordics retailer Synsam Group published an initial comparative life cycle analysis (LCA) between acetate frames produced in its newly opened Swedish factory and similar frames manufactured by its Asian suppliers. When it announced the construction of a 6,000 square-meter ...
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ArticleKRYS GROUP to raise lens production capacity by 30%
KRYS GROUP has announced the completion of the building of its new plant at its CODIR industrial and logistic center in Bazainville, near Paris. The new 4,800 square meter structure, which is slated to become operational early next year at the latest, will enable the French optical retailer to accelerate ...
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ArticleMitsui to increase MR output and bolster synergies with coating unit in FY 2023
Mitsui Chemicals has reported a 33 percent year-on-year increase in revenue to 258 billion Japanese yen (€1.7bn) in fiscal 2022 for its Life & Healthcare Solutions business, a unit that includes sales of vision care materials but also other product categories, such as agrochemicals and nonwovens. Operating margin for the ...
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ArticleAmerican eyecare providers expect good things from 2023
In its report for the first quarter of 2023 The Vision Council finds that optimism reigns among eyecare providers in the U.S. – despite what the Council’s senior director of market research and analytics, Alysse Henkel, calls “acute pressures” from price inflation and a tight labor market. Surveyed providers found ...
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ArticleFielmann enters U.S. market with dual acquisition and high-profile recruitment
The Fielmann Group announced yesterday its entry into the U.S. market with the dual acquisition of a brick-and-mortar regional optical retail leader and an e-commerce specialist through which the German-based company plans to deploy its omnichannel business model in the country. In what group CEO Marc Fielmann describes as ...
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ArticleCooperVision to invest $500 m in Puerto Rico manufacturing base
CooperVision has announced a $500 million investment for the expansion of its operations in Puerto Rico, including the enhancement of existing facilities in Juna Diaz and the building of a new factory in Ponce. In more details for the Juna Diaz facilities, CooperVision said it would convert a 2,000 square ...
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ArticleScreening and shared data at the core of TOPCON 2025 plan
Japanese-based equipment maker TOPCON has reported a strong growth in revenue and stable margins for its eye care division in its fiscal year ended March 31. The company also presented its mid-term business strategy and 2025 targets, with a strong focus on its screening and software businesses that are expected ...
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ArticleRodenstock sales up 4 % last year on B.I.G. Vision lenses momentum
Rodenstock Group has reported €505 million in pro-forma sales for fiscal 2022, an increase of 4 percent on a like-for-like basis compared with the previous year. The lens company stressed that it could deliver robust results despite challenging macroeconomic conditions that led to a slowdown in growth pace in the ...
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ArticleCooperCompanies upgrades outlook after solid Q2
CooperCompanies has reported a 6.4 percent year-on-year revenue increase to $589.3 million for its CooperVision unit in the second quarter of its fiscal year, ended April 30. The division topline was up by 10 percent at constant currencies and organically, marking its ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, the company ...
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ArticleCircularity gaining traction in the French eyewear market
Circularity in the eyewear sector has been a hot topic in the last couple of weeks in France as two major retail chains, and a young start up specializing in the recycling of used glasses, have announced new programs for second-hand eyewear. ZAC, a Lille-based startup specializing in the ...
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ArticleMaterialise and Vuzix join forces in smart eyewear
Smart glasses supplier Vuzix and 3D-printing company Materalise have announced the start of their collaboration in the area of consumer smart eyewear; a market that is believed to be on the verge of mass adoption after years of development. As previously reported, the U.S.-based tech company is ramping up its ...
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ArticleHow did the top eyewear companies perform in their last fiscal year?
For the first time we are publishing a comparative analysis of the performance of the eyewear industry’s main players during their last financial year. You can see the detailed results in the interactive table below. Most companies in this table are stock listed and their financial year ends on ...
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ArticleFrench opticians release new market data ahead of new health care plan negotiations
As the French government prepares for a new round of discussions with healthcare professionals for an update of its so-called 100% Santé reform, the Rassemblement des Opticiens de France (ROF), the main opticians’ association in the country, has released a new set of data around the implementation of the plan ...
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ArticleNIDEK launches time-saving automated refraction software for ECPs
Japanese-based optical equipment maker NIDEK is introducing FARS, which stands for Fully Assisted Refraction System and is an optional kit to the company’s TS-610, its latest generation tabletop refraction machine. FARS consists of application software, compatible with tablets and PCs, and a joystick controller, and enables patients to perform the ...
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ArticleDo soft contacts contain PFAS?
An American blog has commissioned a laboratory to test 18 varieties of soft contact lens, from three brands, and found that all contain the same “marker” – an organic fluorine – for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. PFAS are commonly called “forever chemicals,” because they do not break down ...
