The latest news, analysis and data on topics including Financial Results, Corporate, M&A, Omnichannel, Retail & Distribution, E-Commerce & DTC, Market Statistics, Policy & Legal, Trade & Sourcing, Marketing, Products, Trade fairs & Events
Fielmann business recovery accelerated in H1
The Fielmann retail group released preliminary figures for the first half of the current financial year during its annual general meeting on July 8. The company said that its business’ recovery accelerated in Q2 thanks to declining Covid-19 incidences on the optical market and to its ongoing internationalization and digitization ...
Afflelou rebounds 3 % higher than in 2019
The Afflelou group reported revenues of €189.3 million for its third quarter and of € 618.1 million for the first nine months of its current financial year, representing year-on-year increases of 74.4 percent and 24.5 percent, respectively.
CVI doubles myopia management sales
Although the segment still accounts for less than 3 percent of CooperVision revenues, much of the talk during the Q2 results’ presentation by the company yesterday revolved around myopia management and the company’s performance in this product category.
Jimmy Fairly to boost international business under new ownership
The vertically integrated French eyewear brand Jimmy Fairly is changing hands after its founders, Antonin Chartier and Sacha Bostoni, and the investment fund Experienced Capital, their main financial partner since 2017, agreed to sell a majority stake of the company to the HLD investment fund. Experienced Capital will exit the ...
Essilux opens smart eyewear innovation center in France
EssilorLuxottica announced earlier this week the creation of a smart eyewear innovation center in France. Located at the group’s production site in Dijon, the new Smart Eyewear Technologies Center aims at reinforcing the company’s expertise and expanding its capabilities in electrochromic – electronically-powered and automated change of the tint of ...
Kering Eyewear acquires Lindberg
Kering Eyewear, an entity of the French luxury group Kering, announced on July 8 the acquisition from the Lindberg family of 100 percent of the share capital of LINDBERG, the Danish-based independent eyewear company. The details of the transaction, which is expected to complete later this year after regulatory clearance, ...
GLCO to boost DTC under new ownership
Garret Leight Califiornia Optical (GLCO), the Los Angeles-based eyewear brand, has announced a strategic investment by The Untitled Group, an investment company specializing in consumer brands based in New York. According to the terms of the agreement, Untitled is investing $20 million in exchange for a majority share in the ...
Warby Parker’s new app renews prescriptions for $15
Warby Parker, the U.S. omnichannel retailer, has renamed its Prescription Check smartphone application to Virtual Vision Test, adding the options for customers to renew their eyeglasses and contact lenses’ prescriptions for a $15 fee. Virtual Vision Test app users need to be at least 18 years old and upload their ...
Jimmy Fairly to boost international business under new ownership
The vertically integrated French eyewear brand Jimmy Fairly is changing hands after its founders, Antonin Chartier and Sacha Bostoni, and the investment fund Experienced Capital, their main financial partner since 2017, agreed to sell a majority stake of the company to the HLD investment fund. Experienced Capital will exit the ...
Hans Anders to start using new AI tool for style recommendations
Hans Anders will start using STYLE PTTRNS, a style recommendation tool for prescription eyewear created by Eindhoven-based startup PTTRNS.ai, on its Dutch e-commerce website starting July 15. The company’s program is presented as a service to assist online and in-store customers in the time-consuming and often challenging selection of their ...
Cione launches new web portal for members
Cione, one of the leading buying groups in Spain and Portugal, is launching a new shopping website for its 900 members. Called MyShop, the online platform is said to offer a simplified purchase process for opticians, with the integration on a single page of the key information for each frame, ...
U.S. optical market slightly above 2019 level in Q1
According to the quarterly VisionWatch market report by The Vision Council, vision correction industry sales in the U.S. jumped by 16.5 percent year-on-year in Q1 2021 to $11.6 billion, also representing a small 1.9 percent hike from 2019 levels. The number of U.S. adults using prescription eyewear rose by 0.4 ...
Q2 Stock price update: Essilux hits record high
We are giving here our quarterly update on the evolution of the stock price of 19 public companies operating in our core market, which grew by 9.4 percent on average between March 31 and June 30.
Shift towards omnichannel in U.S. online eyewear purchase
The Vision Council has released the latest edition of its Internet Influence Report, a research conducted in December 2020 among 4,909 U.S. adult consumers and aimed at measuring the role of internet in their recent eyewear purchases. This edition follows previous reports published in 2017 and 2020 that provide a ...
Spanish market to rebound halfway in 2021 after Covid drop
FEDAO, the Spanish optical federation that regroups both industry and retail associations, has just released its annual Libro Blanco – white paper –, detailing the results of the national optical market’s performance last year. The data presented by the federation is based on a mix of figures provided by their ...