Latest Headlines – Page 80
-
Article
New management after the merger, which is reportedly drawing nearer
The future management set-up at Essilor-Luxottica became more blurred after Hubert Sagnières, chairman and chief executive of Essilor, told the Financial Times earlier this month that “we will hire a professional CEO” once the merger is completed. In the interview published on Dec. 10, Sagnières added that the parties purposely ...
-
Article
Leonardo Del Vecchio creates his own foundation
Following the recent example of Giorgio Armani, an Italian designer who is 82 years old like him, Leonardo Del Vecchio has decided to create his own foundation, with an initial endowment of €300 million. Del Vecchio has changed the by-laws of his family's Luxembourg-based holding company, Delfin, giving its management ...
-
Article
Mondottica buys another French supplier
Gem Lunetterie, a French eyewear manufacturer located at Bellignat, near Oyonnax, has been taken over by one of its clients, Mondottica, the fast-growing international eyewear group led by Michael Jardine, along with its four employees and its general manager, Betrand Viboud.A local court accepted the offer made by Mondottica for ...
-
Article
Acuitis internationalizes further, goes online
Acuitis, the chain of stores specializing in vision care solutions that handle hearing deficiencies at the same time, has just launched its first web shop. Meanwhile, its network of corporate and franchised stores has grown to a total of 65 units in six countries, only ten of which are directly ...
-
Article
The role of the internet is rising for sunglass purchases
Classical opticians are still the chief place for purchases of eyeglasses in the main European countries, but internet websites, fashion stores and department stores have been growing in importance for the purchase of plano sunglasses, according to the latest results of the semi-annual Optical Monitor (OMO) presented by GfK in ...
-
Article
The BRICs help drive Italy’s exports
Italy's exports of eyewear to the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – jumped by 21.1 percent in the first eight months of 2017, with increases of 18.1 percent for prescription frames and 22.4 percent for sunglasses.The good performance in these generally fast-growing markets helped the Italian eyewear industry ...
-
Article
Zeiss’ overall sales and profits improve strongly
Carl Zeiss reported an increase of 2 percent to €1,108 million in the revenues of its Vision Care and Consumer Products division for the financial year ended last Sept. 30. According to a spokesman for the German company, the segment's growth was mostly driven by Zeiss' precision eyeglass lenses, but ...
-
Article
Fedon benefits in part from its diversification
The revenues of the Fedon Group fell by 5.5 percent to €49.1 million in the first nine months of 2017. The rate of the decline would have been higher for the big Italian supplier of eyewear cases without its diversification into leathergoods, whose sales grew by 26 percent to €6 ...
-
Article
CooperVision builds up a new specialty segment
CooperVision announced on Dec. 1 the acquisition of Paragon Vision Sciences, a company specializing in premium orthokeratology (ortho-k), specialty contact lenses and oxygen permeable rigid contact lens materials. Paragon, which is headquartered near Phoenix, Arizona, will continue to operate as an independent business, retaining its brands and offices.Rich Jeffries, president ...
-
Article
Flat market in the U.S.
Higher sales of contact lenses, plano sunglasses and OTC readers could not prevent the vision care sector from recording an overall sales decrease of 0.1 percent to $40.21 billion in the U.S. during a rolling 12-month period ended last Sept. 30, according to the Vision Council's quarterly VisionWatch survey.As 1.3 ...
-
Article
EU negotiators agree to end unjustified geo-blocking
European Union negotiators have agreed to put an end to unjustified geo-blocking, meaning that consumers should be allowed to purchase more products and services online from websites in other European countries.The agreement was reached on Nov. 20 by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, which made it a ...
-
Article
The Luxottica-Essilor merger may not happen this year
The European Commission suspended for a few days its anti-trust investigation into the planned €46 billion merger of Luxottica and Essilor as the companies had failed to provide requested information regarding the deal. It has resumed the investigation after obtaining the documentation, but it's now unlikely that it will be ...
-
Article
A little pause in the European market’s growth
The European market for ophthalmic optic products declined by 0.3 percent in the first half of this year based on the data collected by GfK at the point of sale for the four major markets in the continent. Retail sales declined the most in France, where they were down by ...
-
Article
The U.S. optical market just inches up
The U.S. total vision care industry grew by 0.2 percent in the 12 months from June 2016 to June 2017 as compared to the same period a year earlier, and reached $40.17 in revenues, according to the latest numbers from The Vision Council's VisionWatch survey, reported by Vision Monday.Eyeglasses represented ...
-
Article
Italian eyewear exports rose by 3.6% in H1
Italy's eyewear exports rose by 3.6 percent in value during the first half of 2017, with sales of prescription frames up by 4.3 percent and sunglasses up by 3.2 percent. After three years of double-digit growth rate, the industry's development in foreign markets had already slowed down in 2016, and ...
-
Article
Impairment charge hits GrandVision's results
GrandVision posted revenues for the third quarter of the year that were up by 3.3 percent from the year-ago quarter, or by 5.3 percent at constant exchange rates. On a comparable store basis, they gained 3.1 percent as a result of continued growth in the Other Europe and Americas & ...
-
Article
Steady progress for Fielmann
The leading German optical retailer posted a sales increase of 3 percent on a same-store basis during the third quarter, although the weather was not so good. The higher revenues were largely attributed to a better product mix, which had also a favorable impact on margins, offsetting foreign exchange losses ...
-
Article
Essilor’s momentum improves
The results published by Essilor International for the third quarter indicate that its sales have been gathering momentum, particularly in the lenses and optical instruments division and in sunglasses and readers. Segment sales grew by 3.1 percent and by 0.2 percent on an organic basis during the quarter in these ...
-
Article
Good eyeglass lens sales for Hoya, except in Europe
In commenting on its results for its second financial quarter, ended on Sept. 30, the management of Hoya Corp. said that the recent changes in the French medical insurance system drove the group's business in eyeglass lenses to record lower earnings in Europe.Conversely, Hoya's sales of eyeglass lenses in the ...
-
Article
Luxottica’s Q3 sales hit by natural disasters
Luxottica posted a 3.5 percent drop in third-quarter sales to €2,147 million, missing market expectations by €25 million, as about 800 of its stores in the U.S. and other parts of the world were closed due to extraordinary events. At constant currency rates, revenues grew by 0.8 percent. The company ...
