Latest Headlines – Page 63
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National Vision plans to open all stores by early June
National Vision Holdings, one the largest optical retailers in the U.S., aims to have reopened all its physical stores by early June. They were closed following a nationwide lockdown applied in certain states to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
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ArticleGrandVision’s April sales down over 80% due to Covid-19
GrandVision suffered a drop of more than 80 percent year-on-year in revenues in the month of April, after already registering a severe decline in March, due to the lockdowns and restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of social distancing, moreover, the optical retailer does not expect a rapid recovery ...
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ArticleEssilorLuxottica’s Q1 sales drop by 10%
EssilorLuxottica’s first-quarter revenues were down by 10.1 percent from the year-ago quarter to €3,784 million, or by 10.9 percent in constant currencies, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. But, the company is confident that pent-up demand will underpin sales when the crisis is over. Thanks to its financial ...
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ArticleFielmann’s Q1 sales and profits decline
(updated) Blaming the coronavirus outbreak, Fielmann reported a sharp 74.8 percent drop in net income for the first quarter of 2020, down to €11.8 million, on a 7.0 percent decline in consolidated revenues to €352.9 million for the first quarter of this year. The number of glasses sold fell by ...
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Suppliers help opticians in the U.S.
More than 75 percent of U.S. opticians consulted by the Vision Council said they were receiving some form of support from their suppliers in a survey conducted between April 8 and 11, up from 31 percent in a previous survey on March 24-27. Details about the kind of support could ...
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Safilo buys Privé Revaux at a hefty price
Two months after announcing the acquisition of Blenders in California (see EWI Vol. 20 n°15 +16), Safilo has bought another fast-growing American eyewear brand, Privé Revaux, from a number of shareholders. Chief among them is a San Francisco-based private equity fund, TSG Consumer Partners, which invested in the company in ...
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Michael Jardine’s Story
As we reported in our last issue, Michael Jardine is retiring as chief executive of Mondottica, the multi-brand company that he founded two decades ago. He has an interesting story about his experiences and future plans, as well as some very pertinent observations to make about the industry: Born ...
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EssiLux’ buy of GrandVision comes under closer scrutiny
Confirming the Reuters report mentioned in our previous issue, the European Commission has confirmed its decision to launch an in-depth investigation, known as a phase II review, into EssilorLuxottica’s planned takeover of GrandVision. The preliminary investigation ended on Feb. 6. The commission had until June 22 to take a decision ...
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Mido is postponed to July 5-7 over coronavirus
After meeting with some of its exhibitors, buyers and other stakeholders, the organizers of the Mido trade show, which was going to celebrate its 50th edition this weekend, have decided to postpone the event and the related celebrations to July 5-7, starting them on a Sunday rather than on a ...
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German independents outperformed in Europe in 2019
Independent opticians performed particularly well in Germany in the past year. According to GfK, the German market enjoyed strong growth in Europe, rising by 5.5 percent to €5.8 billion at the retail level, compared with increases of 1.4 percent in France and 1.1 percent in Spain and a decrease of ...
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Fielmann posts slightly higher profits for the year
Fielmann’s performance for 2019 seems to have confirmed the positive momentum that it had already reported for the first half of the year. According to preliminary figures, its consolidated sales for the 2019 financial year show an increase of about 6 percent to €1.52 billion as compared to €1.43 billion ...
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Higher sales and profits for Synsam
The Synsam Group reached a turnover of 3,741 million Swedish kronor (€350.7m-$387.4m) last year, up from SEK 3,380 million in 2018. The adjusted operating profit amounted to SEK 984 million (€92.3m-$101.9m) a big increase from SEK 643 million in the previous year. In addition to the opening of new ...
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New financing round for the expansion of Mister Spex
Mister Spex, which claims to be Europe’s leading online optician, completed another round of financing for over €15 million this month. The equity financing round was led by the Co-Investor Group, a firm that invests in medium-sized companies and maintains offices in Zurich, Frankfurt and Berlin. The new capital ...
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Hoya reports a squeeze in segment sales and profits
The results of Hoya Corp. for the third quarter ended on Dec. 31 were negatively impacted by the expected increase in the sales tax in Japan, which had increased purchases in the previous quarter. In particular, sales of contact lenses and eyeglass lenses declined in the country, affecting also the ...
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Inspecs plans acquisitions after its recent IPO
Inspecs has managed to sell all the new and existing shares it planned to place in its initial public offering (IPO) on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange, despite a difficult market environment. The company’s share price remained in line with the IPO price of ...
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Mazzucchelli and others become more sustainable
Mazzucchelli 1849, the world’s leading supplier of acetate sheet for eyeglasses and sunglasses, has just announced that it will start commercial deliveries of a new type of sheet made from Eastman Acetate Renew during the second quarter of 2020. Eastman Chemical Company says that Mazzucchelli, a long-time partner of the ...
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Safilo to use regenerated nylon produced by Aquafil
Safilo is making a significant pitch for sustainability by adopting a new material, Econyl. This is a regenerated nylon produced by Aquafil, an Italian manufacturer of synthetic fibers that is becoming increasingly popular among fashion and sportswear brands, but has never before been used in the eyewear industry. The ...
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Danish sunglasses made from ocean waste
A company based in Copenhagen, called Responseability (sic), is resorting to Kickstarter to help finance the launch of a sustainable collection of four unisex sunglasses made from 100% ocean waste plastic, where each pair is said to remove 1 kg of plastic from the ocean. The glasses are made of ...
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An interesting loyalty scheme
In January 2019, Denmark’s Design Eyewear Group launched an interesting loyalty program among its direct retail clients to better capitalize on the synergies among the various brands in its portfolio. Thanks to the rewards offered through the program, 35 percent of the clients located in countries where the group doesn’t ...
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Kazakh eyewear retailer mulls over international expansion
The biggest eyewear retailer in the market of Kazakhstan, Actual Optic, is considering franchising its operation in Russia and Turkey, according to the local edition of Forbes magazine. Actual Optic is running 25 stores in 10 cities of Kazakhstan offering more than 100 eyewear brands. Anna Yakovleva, general director ...
