Latest Headlines – Page 75
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DaTE is coming to America
DaTE, the growing Italian mini-expo held every month of September before Silmo Paris for the past two years in Florence, will be holding a special new edition for the U.S. market next year. It will start with a small show in Santa Monica, California next May, hosting a minimum of ...
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Tradition and modernity at Silmo
On the eve of its 51th edition, the Silmo organizers confirmed an increase in the number of exhibitors to 987, up from 958 last year, coming from 39 countries. That includes 130 companies that did not exhibit in 2017, among which are De Rigo Vision, the Italian eyewear group, and ...
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Gentle Monster focuses on own retail in Europe
Gentle Monster, the big and creative eyewear brand from South Korea, opened its first European flagship store in London at the end of July, stirring a lot of excitement in the retail scene, way beyond the eyewear sector, because of its very special design and the development strategy behind it. ...
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Grandvision returns to growth in various markets
The G4 segment of GrandVision - which includes France, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, the U.K. and Ireland - returned to growth during the first half of the year, after several consecutive quarters of weakness following a change in health insurance reimbursements in France. In the first six months ended ...
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Fielmann earns less
Fielmann hopes to turn around in the second half, in order to reach its forecast for a further increase in sales and profits for the full financial year. Germany's biggest optical retailer booked a net profit of €37.8 million in the second quarter of this year, down from €43.8 million ...
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Safilo curtails its ambitions
Safilo released an updated version of its business plan to 2020 that drastically trims its previous growth forecasts. Led by a newly appointed chief executive, Angelo Trocchia, the management now expects the group's sales to grow by about 2 percent a year, or by 4 percent excluding the Gucci business, ...
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Safilo enters €300 million refinancing talks
Safilo has entered talks with its creditor banks and its main shareholder, Hal Holding, to arrange a refinancing package of at least €300 million by the end of November, when its €150 million revolving credit facility (RCF) expires. The package could involve a cash call to shore up its balance ...
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Safilo’s H1 sales go down by 10.0%
In the first half of 2018, Safilo posted a 10.0 percent decline in sales to €492.2 million. At constant currency rates, the top line fell by 4.3 percent. The currency-neutral decrease further narrowed to 3.7 percent when excluding the Gucci business. Safilo said that sales were mainly affected by a ...
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Kering Eyewear’s sales jump by 32%
Kering Eyewear's sales rose by 32 percent to €262 million in the first half of 2018, lifted by the newly acquired Cartier license.The collaboration with Cartier, which is owned by the Swiss luxury goods firm Richemont, started with the 2018 spring/summer collection. The partnership led Richemont to acquire a 30 ...
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CooperVision goes after key accounts
CooperVision (CVI), which has already a solid position among independent eye care professionals, has embarked on a new strategy to win over new clients among the bigger optical retail chains and the buying groups all over the world, offering them new services, volume discounts and targeted marketing support in order ...
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Bausch + Lomb confirms its organic growth
Due to strong sales in the second quarter, including better-than-expected organic growth at Bausch + Lomb, Bausch Health raised its adjusted Ebitda guidance for the full financial year. The Canadian group - previously called Valeant Pharmaceuticals - now expects it to be in the range of $3,200 to $3,350 million, ...
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Higher sales and margins for Hoya Vision Care
Hoya Corporation's revenues grew in its Life Care segment by 8.5 percent to 91.3 billion yen (€703.7m-$821.1m) for the first quarter of its financial year in reported terms, and by 10 percent on a currency-neutral basis. This segment, which represented around 65 percent of the Japanese group's quarterly revenues, includes ...
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The Essilor-Luxottica merger is set to close in September
Essilor and Luxottica are expecting to close their merger agreement by the end of the third quarter now that the deal has been blessed by the Chinese government, after a long wait. The teams of the two companies have already started to work together to prepare the reorganization of the ...
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Essilor posts generally positive results
While announcing the approval of its combination with Luxottica by China's anti-trust authorities, which has removed the last hurdle for the creation of a new industry giant (see separate article in this issue), Essilor reported partially positive results for the first six months of this year, defining them as “healthy” ...
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Luxottica cleans up the distribution in Europe
Luxottica expects an acceleration in its organic sales growth to about 4 percent in the second half of this year, but the company nevertheless trimmed its top line guidance after a flattish first half.The group had previously projected that its sales would grow by between 2 and 4 percent this ...
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Steady growth for Specsavers
The international British-based optical retail chain reported annual revenues of £2,614 million (€2,935.4m-$3,429.0m) for its financial year ended in February, a 7 percent increase in constant currencies as compared to the previous year, when it had grown by 6.6 percent. In reported terms, Specsavers' global revenues grew by 15 percent, ...
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Luxottica buys Barberini
Luxottica is making yet another strategic move in the integration of lenses in its product line through the acquisition of Barberini, the Italian producer of high-end mineral lenses for sun and optical glasses, for about €140 million, after the start-up of its own lens factories in Italy and the U.S. ...
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Moody’s downgrades Safilo again
The rating agency downgraded Safilo's corporate family rating to B2 from B1 on concerns about delays in refinancing the eyewear maker's debt. More worryingly, Moody's changed its outlook for the company to negative from stable, indicating the possibility of a further downgrade.Moody's also cut its rating for the probability of ...
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Italia Independent completes €4.89 million refinancing
To refinance itself again, Italia Independent completed on July 6 a €4.89 million rights issue under which shareholders could buy seven new shares for every 31 held at a price of €4 per share.Shareholders took up only 77.37 percent of the 1,221,500 shares, representing a total outlay of €3.78 million. ...
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Novartis will spin off Alcon
Novartis International has decided to let go of its eye care business, Alcon, keeping only its portfolio of pharmaceutical products. In January, the group had announced a strategic review of the division, which is now completed. After examining alternative options including a public offering for Alcon, the management determined that ...
