All articles by Pierre-Marie Bernard
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ArticleEssilux posts solid Q2 results, answers questions on Supreme, Meta
EssilorLuxottica has posted solid results for the first six months of 2024 with a continued mid-single-digit revenue progression in Q2, which was almost an exact duplicate of the Q1 performance, and gross and operating margin expansions. We cover the results in more detail in the second part of this article. ...
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ArticleKering Eyewear outperforms group in both revenue growth and profitability in H1
Kering Eyewear sales in Q2 2024 grew by 3.4 percent year-on-year to €451 million, slowing down from the 6.9 percent growth rate reported for the first quarter of the year. For the first six months of 2024, the eyewear unit of French luxury group Kering reported a 6.0 percent uptick ...
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ArticleMister Spex founder and CEO steps down, former Luxottica manager takes key role
Effective July 31, 2024, Dirk Graber, founder of German-based retail group Mister Spex, is stepping down from his role as CEO of the company after the supervisory board accepted his request to be relieved from his duties. The announcement, which comes only a few months after the departure of former ...
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ArticleMeta reportedly in discussion to take a 5% stake in Essilux
On the day following the announcement of streetwear brand Supreme by EssilorLuxottica, both the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Meta was in talks to acquire a 5 percent stake in the Italo-French eyewear group. The news sent EssilorLuxottica’s share price back up after a 4.5 ...
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ArticleEssilux mixes med-tech and streetwear in shopping basket
“As you understood, we love our origins a lot, based on frames and lenses, but the company is now taking a slightly different direction,” said Francesco Milleri, CEO of EssilorLuxottica at the group’s shareholders’ assembly in April, replying to a question related to the potential acquisition of Marcolin. This was ...
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ArticleA majority of stock listed eyewear companies saw their share value decline in Q2
Stock listed eyewear companies have seen their share value increase by 4.3 percent on a non-weighted average basis in the second quarter of 2024, improving slightly from the 1.6 percent increase observed in Q1. The industry average outperformed the MSCI World Index, which includes 1,500 companies worldwide and grew by ...
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ArticlePrivate equity fund about to invest in Lunettes Pour Tous
Quilvest Capital Partners, a global investment fund with over $7 billion in assets under management, is in advanced talks for the acquisition of a significant share in French-based optical retail group Lunettes Pour Tous, according to a recent article by L’Informé, a French independent business news website. This followed an ...
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ArticleFielmann posts double-digit sales increase and higher profit ratios in H1
On the morning of its annual general meeting on July 11, Fielmann Group has reported strong preliminary results for the first half of the current fiscal year. External sales increased by 12 percent year-on-year to €1.1 billion in H1 2024, confirming the double-digit growth already reported for Q1. International ...
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ArticleBrazilian optical retail market value up 5 % in 2023
The Brazilian optical retail market value grew by 4.9 percent year-on-year to 25.6 billion reais (€4.4bn) in 2023 according to the annual report by Abióptica. The data was calculated based on a survey by Cielo, a credit card service company, at optical stores. It does not include online sales. Founded ...
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ArticleDouble-digit growth puts Specsavers above the £4 bn annual revenue mark
Publishing its annual business review for its fiscal year ended Feb. 29, 2024, Specsavers has reported group revenue of £4.01 billion, up by 10.3 percent year-on-year at constant exchange rates. This marks a strong improvement from the previous fiscal year when sales were up by 5.6 percent. The performance also ...
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ArticleAfflelou sales up 5 percent in Q3
The Afflelou Group has reported a 5.5 percent year-on-year increase in network sales to €229.4 million for the third quarter of its current fiscal year, ended April 30, in line with its growth pace in the previous quarter. For the first nine months of the financial year, sales were up ...
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ArticleKirk & Kirk turns to crowfunding for marketing budget boost
Kirk & Kirk is about to complete a crowdfunding campaign for £150,000 (€177,000) by selling approximately 7 percent of company shares on Crowdcube, a crowdfunding platform focusing on European start-ups. Jason Kirk, CEO, and Karen Kirk, Creative Director, each hold 36 percent of the family business. At the date of ...
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ArticleGoogle takes a seat at AR Alliance’s board, alongside Meta, Essilux and others
The AR Alliance, an international body regrouping companies and organizations in the augmented reality hardware sector, has announced that Google has become a new founding member of the association, taking a seat at its board of directors. The announcement seems to give more substance to speculations that the high-tech giant ...
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ArticleMost top industry players maintained momentum last year, but frames companies slowed down
We are publishing here for the second time an industry-wide table showing the year-on-year revenue and profitability performance of most large companies in the eyewear sector in their last fiscal year. For most of them, the fiscal year corresponds to the 2023 calendar year. Exceptions include Japanese-based companies (fiscal year ...
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ArticleIncreased production capacity supports Menicon’s sales growth, weighs on profitability
Menicon has reported a 5.1 percent year-on-year increase in annual revenue to 106.9 billion Japanese yen (€633m) for its vision care division in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. The segment accounts for over 90 percent of total group revenue. Including the healthcare and life care unit, whose sales ...
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ArticleFielmann more than doubles US retail footprint with new acquisition
Fielmann Group has announced that it has agreed to acquire 100 percent equity ownership of Shopko Optical, a US optical retail chain based in Wisconsin, through Fielmann USA, its subsidiary in the country. The transaction, for which the amount was not disclosed, is expected to become effective in the third ...
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ArticleJ.F. REY new owners look to balance brand DNA and changes while navigating supply chain issues
Almost three years after the acquisition of J.F. REY by a Franco-German trio of investors including Dan Levi and Ralf Kmoch of Visibilia, and Walter Pirinoli of Visioptis, we sat down with the French executive to discuss the evolutions and future strategic orientations of the Marseille-based designer eyewear brand. “While ...
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ArticleMitsui expects return to growth for vision care unit sales in FY 2024
Annual sales of Mitsui Chemicals’ Life & Healthcare Solutions unit, which includes the group’s vision care materials, nonwovens and agrochemicals businesses, increased by 13.5 percent year-on-year to 271.7 billion Japanese yen (€1.6bn) for fiscal 2023, ended on March 31. The division reported an operating margin of 11.0 percent for the ...
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ArticleCVI upgrades outlook again as increased capacity kicks in
CooperCompanies has upgraded again its full-year outlook after the solid performance of its CooperVision (CVI) unit in the second quarter of fiscal 2024 ended April 30. Quarterly sales of contact lenses increased by 8 percent year-on-year to $635.9 million. On a constant-currency basis, they were up by 10 percent, returning ...
