All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 21 No. 3-4
View all stories from this issue.
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PDF NewsletterEyewear Intelligence Newsletter: Vol 21 - 03+04
Mido is postponed over Covid-19 | Scrutiny for Essilux’ GrandVision buy | German independents outperform | New financing for Mister Spex | Hoya endures a squeeze | Inspecs goes public | Safilo buys another American firm | Mazzucchelli, others go green | A Kickstarter for sustainable glasses | An interesting loyalty scheme | Michael Jardine’s life and insights
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Article
Safilo buys Privé Revaux at a hefty price
Two months after announcing the acquisition of Blenders in California (see EWI Vol. 20 n°15 +16), Safilo has bought another fast-growing American eyewear brand, Privé Revaux , from a number of shareholders. Chief among them is a San Francisco-based private equity fund, TSG Consumer Partners , which invested in the ...
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Article
Michael Jardine’s Story
As we reported in our last issue, Michael Jardine is retiring as chief executive of Mondottica , the multi-brand company that he founded two decades ago. He has an interesting story about his experiences and future plans, as well as some very pertinent observations to make about the industry: ...
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Article
EssiLux’ buy of GrandVision comes under closer scrutiny
Confirming the Reuters report mentioned in our previous issue, the European Commission has confirmed its decision to launch an in-depth investigation, known as a phase II review, into EssilorLuxottica ’s planned takeover of GrandVision . The preliminary investigation ended on Feb. 6. The commission had until June 22 to take ...
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Article
Mido is postponed to July 5-7 over coronavirus
After meeting with some of its exhibitors, buyers and other stakeholders, the organizers of the Mido trade show, which was going to celebrate its 50th edition this weekend, have decided to postpone the event and the related celebrations to July 5-7, starting them on a Sunday rather than on a ...
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News briefs
National Vision donates eyewear for children
National Vision has announced that during the holiday season it donated more than 8,100 pairs of free prescription eyeglasses to children in need across the U.S. through its 2019 holiday give-back initiative with America’s Best Contacts Eyeglasses , its largest retail brand. National Vision Holdings is one of ...
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News briefs
Essilor donates eyewear to UNSRF
Essilor has announced a donation of one million glasses and sunglasses to the United Nations Road Safety Fund (UNSRF) as part of a global effort to promote road safety. The UNRSF was established in April 2018 as a UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund, based on the resolution 70/260 adopted during the ...
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News briefs
AirArt signs deal with Louis Vanel
AirArt , a novel French brand of men’s technical eyewear, has signed a deal with Louis Vanel , the 29-year-old French pilot who became world aerobatics champion last year. Vanel wears rhodium frames with nano-ceramic nosepads and DiamondBlack coating, which consists of graphite and diamond particles and was developed for ...
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News briefs
Synoptik changes its marketing
Synoptik , the Danish optical retail chain, has decided to change its marketing strategy. Instead of making use of humor, as before, it is launching a campaign that says “Synoptik takes your vision seriously.” Working with a new advertising agency, Bandhouse , it has chosen to focus on the customer’s ...
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News briefs
French mutual benefit societies merge
The French mutual benefit societies grouping opticians and audiologists, respectively Opticiens Mutualistes and Audition Mutualiste , merged last December and launched a new banner, Ecouter Voir (Hear See), along with an advertising campaign
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News briefs
Bausch + Lomb's Italian country manager becomes president of Assottica
Andrea Croce , Italian country manager for Bausch + Lomb , was elected president of the Italian contact lens association Assottica until 2022. He is replacing Stefano Romandini , who has run the association for the past two years. Assottica’s members are Alcon , AMO , Bausch + Lomb, CooperVision ...
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News briefs
German eyewear statistics
A research project carried out by Allenbach shows that the number of people wearing glasses in Germany has increased to 41.1 million in the past five years. The number of people who wear glasses increased by 4 percent for those aged 20 to 29 and by 6 percent for those ...
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News briefs
Allergan's Q4 revenues up
Allergan ’s fourth-quarter revenues rose by 6.6 percent to $4,351million. The group posted an operating loss of $276.6 million for the period compared with an operating loss of $5,384 million a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, it booked an operating income of $2.079 million, up by 8.4 percent. Allergan ...
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News briefs
Kering Eyewear feeds its parent
Kering Eyewear contributed revenues of €474 million to the turnover of the Kering group in 2019, up by 18.2 percent on a comparable basis from 2018. The rise was fueled by the Gucci , Cartier and Saint Laurent licenses and the takeover of the Montblanc and Balenciaga licenses. With intra-group ...
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News briefs
Menicon gets new distributor for Italy
Menicon , the Japanese producer of contact lenses, has changed distributors in Italy. On Jan. 31, Menicon dropped Occhio per Occhio for Soleko , an Italian producer and distributor of contact lenses, which it bought in October 2019. When it took over Soleko – through the acquisition of its parent ...
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News briefs
Doubleice chooses distributor for Italy
Doubleice , an Italian brand of eyewear founded in 2005, has chosen Formelli 1945 as its distributor of prescription frames and sunglasses to Italian opticians. So far, Doubleice has been sold in concept and department stores. Formelli 1945 already distributes the brands Moleskine , Vinyl Factory and Flair .
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News briefs
Kits Eyecare appoints chief marketing officer
Kits Eyecare , a Canadian online retailer of eyeglasses and contact lenses, has appointed Rob Long to the role of chief marketing officer. Long joins Kits from the Canadian unit of Dyson , the British manufacturer of vacuum clears and other electric household appliances. Prior to Dyson, Long was part ...
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News briefs
Hoya appoints new president
Eduardo Martins has succeeded Derek Dodge as Hoya Vision Care ’s president for the U.S. market. Martins spent 2019 as senior vice president and general manager of PlayPower , a producer of playground equipment, and the previous 10 years in vice presidencies at Essilor in the U.S. He held similar ...
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News briefs
Maui Jim makes management changes
Maui Jim , the big American sunglass specialist, began selling optical eyewear in 2018 and has reportedly enjoyed significant sales growth in the segment. It plans this year to expand its optical collection by 30 items and to enter three new markets – Italy, Greece and Belgium. To raise awareness ...
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News briefs
Charmant appoints president and CEO
The Charmant group has announced the appointment of Masakiyo Honjo as its new president and chief executive. On April 1, he will take over from Masao Miyachi , who will retire after 40 years at the company, the last 10 at its helm. A native of Fukui, the Japanese region ...
