All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 14, Issue 10
View all stories from this issue.
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News briefs
Ocuco reports that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has...
Ocuco reports that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted its request to re-examine Seiko-Epson's U.S. Patent 6,019,470, which covers the invention of back-surface, freeform progressive lenses. The government body said on July 1 that Ocuco's request raises “a substantial new question of patentability” for the claims #1 to ...
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News briefs
Marchon and Italia Independent, which has just made a much-publicized...
Marchon and Italia Independent, which has just made a much-publicized initial public offering on the Italian Bourse, have announced a two-year collaboration agreement for a co-branded capsule collection of Karl Lagerfeld eyewear. Italia Independent will distribute the line exclusively in its domestic market. Marchon, which has been Lagerfeld's eyewear licensee ...
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Article
Spy reports higher sales and margins
The Spy brand enjoyed a sales increase of 7 percent to $10.0 million in the second quarter ended June 30, representing the ninth consecutive year-on-year improvement. For the parent company, Spy Inc., sales were up by 6 percent to the same level of $10.0 million as the company had no ...
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Article
Leading online retailer may go public
Prescription Eyewear, the British company behind Glasses Direct and other online retail operations, is re-branding itself as MyOptique Group, using the name of its website for luxury eyewear. It also has hired an adviser to review new strategic financing options including a potential future stock exchange listing.In addition to Glasses ...
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News briefs
Vittorio Tabacchi, former president of Safilo, was reappointed president of...
Vittorio Tabacchi, former president of Safilo, was reappointed president of Eurom 1, the European federation of optical industries, for one more year. The decision was made at the annual meeting of the organization, which took place this time in the Berlin offices of Spectaris, the German optical industry association.
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Article
Vedovotto’s exit hits Safilo’s results
The departure of Safilo's chief executive, Roberto Vedovotto, affected the group's second-quarter results. The group reported non-recurring pre-tax charges of €7.4 million for the quarter, €6.0 million of which were related to the manager's exit and €1.4 million to the restructuring of its European business. Vedovotto announced his resignation on ...
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Article
Europe was a ‘superstar’ in Luxottica’s second quarter
“I would list Europe as the region which has been a superstar,” said Andrea Guerra, chief executive of Luxottica in a conference call with financial analysts while commenting on the regional spread of the group's sales in the second quarter. After several tough quarters, the strong rebound of European markets, ...
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News briefs
Marchon has signed a deal with Snowide to improve the...
Marchon has signed a deal with Snowide to improve the penetration of its Nike Vision range of eyewear in the French sporting goods retail channel. Born in 2010 and based in Geneva, Snowide owns a couple of snowboard brands, APO and White Doctor. It also distributes a variety of action ...
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Article
A.T. Cross will concentrate on eyewear
A.T. Cross, which markets the Costa and Native brands of eyewear, signed last July 13 a definitive agreement to sell its Cross Accessory Division to a newly formed affiliate of Clarion Capital Partners, for a cash price of $60 million. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of ...
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News briefs
Conad, the Italian cooperative of hypermarket stores, says its sales...
Conad, the Italian cooperative of hypermarket stores, says its sales of optical products grew by 10 percent on a comparable store basis in the first half of this year, performing better than food and other types of products. In the last three years, Conad has opened eight optical counters in ...
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News briefs
Fielmann continued to post a sales increase on a comparable...
Fielmann continued to post a sales increase on a comparable store basis in the second quarter end June 30, according to company officials. The German optical retailer released preliminary figures for the second quarter last month showing that its unit sales were up by 4.0 percent to 1.83 million pairs ...
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News briefs
Hoya has decided to invest in InnFocus, a company that...
Hoya has decided to invest in InnFocus, a company that has developed a small tube used to treat open angle glaucoma. The tube is made of a soft biocompatible material and is designed to significantly reduce operation time. Test trials with the tube have already received the CE mark in ...
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News briefs
Coburn Technologies has promoted Jason Smith to director of marketing...
Coburn Technologies has promoted Jason Smith to director of marketing communications. He replaces Curt Brey, who has left the Connecticut-based company to pursue opportunities outside of the industry. In his new role, Smith will be in charge of the development of all the marketing strategies for the company and will ...
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News briefs
Kirk Originals has closed down its store on Conduit Street...
Kirk Originals has closed down its store on Conduit Street in London and signed a license for the U.K. market with Optoplast Actman Eyewear. These moves follow the appointment of David Wilkinson, one of the numerous shareholders of Kirk Originals, as the latter's chief executive. The founder and former managing ...
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Article
Small increase in U.S. optical business rating
The overall rating of the U.S. optical business environment was 3.69 in June, up from May's rating of 3.65, according to the Optical Business Barometer compiled by Jobson Optical Research. Comparatively, the rating stood at 3.70 in June 2012, 3.62 in June 2011 and 3.43 in June 2010. For the ...
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News briefs
CLARIFICATION: Pascal Brouard, who left as chief executive of the...
CLARIFICATION: Pascal Brouard, who left as chief executive of the Logo Group a few weeks ago, previously declared that he was contemplating a new offer in the eyewear industry but finally he has left the sector and decided to join Groupe Royer, one of the biggest French companies in the ...
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News briefs
Mister Spex has bought two Swedish online eyewear retailers, Lensstore...
Mister Spex has bought two Swedish online eyewear retailers, Lensstore and Loveyewear, to speed up its international expansion. Total annual sales for all three companies are expected to reach €48 million in 2013. Lensstore sells contact lenses with a major focus on Sweden, Norway and Finland. Loveyewear offers prescription frames ...
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News briefs
Optiker Bode, the German chain of optical shops, reports that...
Optiker Bode, the German chain of optical shops, reports that its sales increased by 11 percent to €24.8 million in the first half of this year, as compared to the same period of 2012. Optiker Bode is one of the four biggest German chains of optical shops. With its 73 ...
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Short stops
Visioptis, which has the eyewear license for Banana Moon, is...
Visioptis, which has the eyewear license for Banana Moon, is taking on the distribution of Gloryfy sunglasses in France
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Article
B. Robinson licenses Revo from its new owners
B. Robinson is more or less doubling in size by taking on the global license for Revo sunglasses and related products. The deal follows the acquisition of the Revo brand from Oakley and its parent company, Luxottica, by an American firm, Sequential Brand Group, that specializes in marketing and licensing ...
