Latest Headlines – Page 35
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ArticleANFAO turns focus to costs after exports jumped in 2022
Just a few days ahead of the 2023 edition of MIDO, Italian eyewear industry association ANFAO released preliminary data for 2022 that broadly confirmed the contrasted picture given last December, between booming exports and a flattish domestic market. Production value of Italian eyewear increased by 24.0 percent year-on-year to €5,171 ...
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ArticleInspecs 2022 revenue up 9%
Inspecs Group has just released a trading update for its business in 2022, in line with the previous update announced in October and showing signs of improvements that sent the group’s share price up by more than 40 percent on the day of the announcement. At 94 pence now, the ...
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ArticleGood 2022 results for Safilo, but Longarone plant’s future uncertain
While showing positive results for 2022, with increases in both revenue and margins, the statement released by the Safilo Group yesterday (Jan. 26) raised concerns about the future of its Longarone plant and its 500 employees. In the opening remarks of its financial announcement, Safilo said that its board of ...
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ArticleBrits cutting back on eye care, surveys show
A new survey by Specsavers among 2,000 U.K. adults showed that, while 73 percent of respondents wanted to prioritize their health in 2023, 11 percent declared that this would be impossible due to the cost-of-living crisis. Researchers also found that eye care was one of the first healthcare priorities to ...
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ArticleJohnson & Johnson Q4 CL sales grow 7.7% at constant fx
Johnson & Johnson’s global sales of contact lenses in the fourth quarter decreased by a reported 0.2 percent to $831 million as currency headwinds hit the top line. Sales at constant currency rates instead jumped by 7.7 percent, as the company highlighted the strong performance of its Acuvue Oasys 1-Day ...
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ArticleSynsam details roadmap to mid-term financial targets
During its Capital Markets Day held on Jan. 30 at one of its flaship store in Stockholm, Nordics’ leading retailer Synsam Group confirmed its medium-term financial targets and disclosed more information and figures on how it would achieve them. The presentation took place as the group’s share price lost about ...
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ArticleTop management changes at Rodenstock Group
The Rodenstock Group successively announced in the last two days the appointment of a new CEO for the group and of a new general manager for its optoVision subsidiary. Following the decision of current CEO Anders Hedegaard to step down, Rodenstock has appointed Marcus Desimoni to replace him, effective Feb. ...
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ArticleInnovative Eyewear and ABG partner in smart audio glasses
Innovative Eyewear, a U.S.-based company specializing on smart eyewear with embedded audio technology, announced at the end of 2022 the signature of a new multi-year global license agreement to develop and market smart glasses under the Eddie Bauer brand. The first range is slated for launch in the course of ...
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ArticleTCL and others unveil new smart glasses at the CES show
According to research company Market Research Future, the market for AR and VR smart glasses is expected to grow at an annual average of 13.5 percent until 2030, reaching $26 billion for the 2022-2030 period. Aside from tech giants such as Google, Apple, and Meta, which recently acquired 3D-printed ophthalmic ...
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ArticleGerman optical associations release new market data at opti
Ahead of the opening of the opti trade show in Munich today, industry association Spectaris announced that, based on its preliminary calculations, sales from German-based suppliers of ophthalmic optics and consumer optics reached a total of €4.87 million for 2022, up by 2.5 percent from 2021. The growth was entirely ...
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ArticleProduct carbon footprint, circularity and 3D print on Ace & Tate sustainability agenda
Dutch-based eyewear brand Ace & Tate will launch its first 3D-printed collection with a short range of sports glasses, we learned in an interview with Femme van Gils, sustainability manager, and Sean Peron, vice president of marketing and brand. The collection will be based on Arkema’s Polyamide 11, a polymer ...
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ArticleThe Vision Council sees a much bigger but flat U.S. market for 2022
The Vision Council has changed its view of the U.S. optical industry, after a revamping of its statistical methods, and has just published a retitled annual survey: the Market inSights Report. Available free of charge to the Council’s members, the report estimates data for product categories, market divisions and the ...
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ArticleIndustry top 5 average stocks' value up 11 % in Q4
Stock prices of public companies in the eyewear sector have confirmed their recovery in the last quarter of 2022, as the average value inched up by 0.3 percent in the period on a non-weighted basis. It is the first time that our quarterly chart shows an improvement in average value ...
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ArticleSpecsavers owners place company in family trust
Specsavers’ owners and co-founders Dame Mary Perkins and her husband Doug have announced that they had placed the company in a family trust in order to protect it from a potential acquisition by private equity funds in the future. “We are coming up to our 80th birthdays so we have ...
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ArticleA look at the year ahead
A year ago, things were looking brighter, or so it seemed, and one could have described the general eyewear industry mood as “cautiously optimistic.” After the initial COVID-19 shock in 2020, business conditions progressively returned to normal in all main optical markets, to the exception of China and other Asian ...
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ArticleMeta acquires 3D-printed ophthalmic lens company Luxexcel
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has discretely acquired Luxexcel, the supplier of 3D-printed prescription lenses, at the end of last year in a strategic move certainly aimed at enhancing the tech giant’s virtual reality (VR) portfolio. No official announcement was released by Meta but the investment, which ...
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ArticleAfflelou up 2.1% in Q1 with return to growth in France
The Afflelou group has posted a 2.1 percent year-on-year increase in network sales to €213 million for the first quarter of its 2022 financial year, ended on Oct. 31, with growth in all its markets in spite of the troubled macroeconomic environment. On a like-for-like basis, sales were up by ...
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ArticleFielmann expands Spanish business with new acquisition
The Fielmann Group is strengthening its presence in the Spanish market through the full acquisition of the retail, wholesale and manufacturing businesses of MFI Group, a leading optical and hearing-aid supplier in northern Spain. The transaction will be completed on Dec. 31, 2022. The investment comes after the takeover in ...
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ArticleExports jump and new projects for Italian eyewear but ANFAO warns of looming crisis
On the occasion of its annual general meeting last week, the Italian eyewear industry association ANFAO delivered positive interim export figures for 2022 and announced two new initiatives related to feminine empowerment and innovation in the industry. As reflected in our tables below, exports of Italian eyewear increased by 22 ...
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ArticleDownsized opti to focus on myopia management and sustainability
Opti organizers have had to reduce the exhibition space of their next edition of the show, scheduled to take place from next January 13 to 15 in Munich, after being faced with a wave of cancelations from several large eyewear industry players and usual exhibitors. Initially planned on four halls ...
