All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 20, Issue 9-10

View all stories from this issue.

  • News briefs

    Marcolin has opened a subsidiary in Singapore, within the Marina...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Marcolin has opened a subsidiary in Singapore, within the Marina Bay Financial Centre. The new branch is expected to boost sales and marketing activities in the Asia-Pacific region, alongside the existing regional office in Hong Kong, and to provide a dedicated customer service to better serve Singapore, Malaysia and Southeast ...

  • News briefs

    Optiswiss, the Swiss-based independent lens laboratory, reports that it has...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Optiswiss, the Swiss-based independent lens laboratory, reports that it has recently signed a four-year contract with Santéclair, the French insurance group with 55 affiliated insurance companies. In addition to Optiswiss, Santéclair has signed contracts with Essilor, Zeiss and Nikon. In the French health insurance system, lens manufacturers compete to become suppliers ...

  • Article

    GrandVision posts a strong quarter, lifted by online sales

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Thanks in part to efforts to boost its omni-channel capacities, GrandVision posted strong results for the second quarter of the year, with sales jumping by 6.2 percent from the year-ago period to €1,021 million, or by 7.1 percent in constant currencies. Comparable sales advanced by 2.5 percent.The French-based optical retail ...

  • Article

    Specsavers is still going strong

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Thanks to an expanding designer range of glasses, hearing aids and other healthcare services, Specsavers saw its revenues improve by 6 percent to 2,780 million pounds (€3,073.8m-$3,447.4m) for its financial year ended on Feb. 28.Although the international British-based optical retail chain does not disclose profitability figures, it indicated in its ...

  • Article

    Two Spanish low-cost start-ups raise funds

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    A Spanish low-cost e-commerce start-up, GreyHounders, has launched a financing round to raise €100,000 by the end of the summer to reinforce its presence in its home market and expand to Portugal by the end of the year. It plans to enter the Italian, French and German markets in 2020.When ...

  • News briefs

    Luz, one of the major French voluntary groups of opticians,...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Luz, one of the major French voluntary groups of opticians, has announced a 2 percent increase in the number of its affiliated members. They reached a total of 1,750 in 2018 against 1,715 in 2017, Acuité reports. The company purchased €167 million in optical goods last year, up slightly from ...

  • News briefs

    L.G.R has opened its first monobrand store in Rome and...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    L.G.R has opened its first monobrand store in Rome and the second one in Italy after Milan. The company plans to open other stores in Italy and abroad.

  • News briefs

    An Italian sunglass producer, Eyepetizer, is opening its first flagship...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    An Italian sunglass producer, Eyepetizer, is opening its first flagship store in Milan, at via Malpighi 8. The 20-square-meter store aims to revive the atmosphere of a 1950s café. Previously the brand opened pop-up stores in Mykonos and Formentera and a store in Polignano, in the southern Italian region of ...

  • Article

    Essilux reports good results

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    EssilorLuxottica reported a 7.3 percent increase in revenues to €8,776 million for the first half on a pro-forma basis, with growth of 3.9 percent in local currencies. The adjusted gross margin declined by 0.3 percentage points to 63.2 percent, due to the product mix and the stronger development of the ...

  • News briefs

    Persol, the upscale home-brand of the EssilorLuxottica group, is scheduled...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Persol, the upscale home-brand of the EssilorLuxottica group, is scheduled to open a new concept store in Milan in September. It will be the first one in Europe. The 100-square-meter store will be located at via Fiori Chiari 16, in the Brera district. The brand already has a store on ...

  • News briefs

    Twenty-three optical retail stores underwent insolvency procedures in France during...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Twenty-three optical retail stores underwent insolvency procedures in France during the second quarter of 2019, according to the data provider Altares. Fourteen stores were liquidated, eight have to undergo restructuring and one was preserved. Insolvency procedures were down 46.5 percent from 43 in the second quarter of 2018.

  • Short stops

    Demenego, a medium-sized Italian eyewear manufacturer that makes its own...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Demenego, a medium-sized Italian eyewear manufacturer that makes its own frames and others under license in the region of Belluno, has just opened its 15th store in northeastern Italy

  • News briefs

    Essilor Sun Solution, the Essilor Group's division dedicated to sun...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Essilor Sun Solution, the Essilor Group's division dedicated to sun lenses, has presented a new “No Ordinary” story called “6,000 km for Microfinance.” The stars are Anne and Marie-Eve, two French students who spent six months of their gap year on a cycling trek through South America, from Colombia to ...

  • News briefs

    Essilor's online review, Points de Vue, and the International Opticians...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Essilor's online review, Points de Vue, and the International Opticians Association (IOA) have announced a strategic partnership to develop joint continuing education programs and promote knowledge sharing among eye-care professionals. The IOA, headquartered in London, is an association dedicated to the enhancement and development of the optical profession around the ...

  • Article

    Russia imports more contact lenses

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    In 2018, Russia imported contact lenses worth $141.2 million, 4 percent more than in the previous year, according to the Russian Federal Customs Service (FCS). The country also exported contact lenses valued at $2.97 million, but it gave no information on the previous year’s export score. The biggest suppliers of ...

  • News briefs

    Coburn Technologies has launched a revamped e-commerce site for optical...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Coburn Technologies has launched a revamped e-commerce site for optical consumables and spare parts at www.ShopCoburn.com. The transformed website features a new design and is said to be more user-friendly, thanks to easy navigation and a simple check-out process. The main offerings on the site include digital surfacing, traditional surfacing, ...

  • News briefs

    Marc Fielmann, the new chief executive of Fielmann, presented a...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Marc Fielmann, the new chief executive of Fielmann, presented a plan at the company's annual meeting last month under which Germany's biggest optical retailer would take the lead throughout Europe by 2025, selling a quarter of all glasses on the continent and reaching an annual turnover of €2.3 billion. According ...

  • News briefs

    LensMaster, the large Russian optical retail chain owned by GrandVision,...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    LensMaster, the large Russian optical retail chain owned by GrandVision, is aiming to expand its retail network in the country by offering franchising agreements to other retailers except in the downtown areas of Moscow and St. Petersburg, where it wants to operate directly. At the beginning of this year, LensMaster ...

  • News briefs

    Mister Spex has recently opened a new learning center for...

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Mister Spex has recently opened a new learning center for apprentices of ophthalmic optics in North Rhine-Westphalia. The learning center, on 120 square meters, is located directly above Mister Spex' physical store in Münster, which was opened a year ago. Seven new apprentices will start working at the learning center ...

  • Article

    Carrefour and Casino start opening optical stores

    2019-08-05T00:00:00Z

    Two big French generalist retailers, Carrefour and Casino, have started opening optical retail stores, as they seek to offer additional services to attract new clients to their hypermarkets and to retain existing ones. One of their competitors, Leclerc, started doing the same more than ten years ago, diversifying into audiology.Carrefour ...