All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 22 No. 5+6
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PDF NewsletterEyewear Intelligence Newsletter: Vol 22 - 5+6
France and Germany fared better than Italy and Spain last year | The French raise their eyewear budget | German suppliers down 9.5% in 2020 | GrandVision down 13.8% last year, awaits EU decision on takeover | Essilux proposes new board directors | Kering Eyewear revovers in H2 | Solstice files for bankruptcy | Gentle Monster’s new retail format | Soft CL market down 9% in Europe last year | Thélios, Mazzucchelli, Eastman partner on sustainable innovation | Varilux’s inventor has passed away
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News briefs
Cazal appoints a new creative director
Op Couture Brillen , the German company behind the Cazal brand, last month appointed Allan Rasmussen as its new product and design director in replacement of Katharina Schlager . Schlager, one of the founders of the Austrian brand Andy Wolf , had been in charge of Cazal’s collections ...
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News briefs
German optical retailers’ customer service performance analyzed
Focus , a German business magazine, looked at the performance in terms of customer service for 22,000 companies operating in 150 different sectors in the country. The research published a couple of weeks ago was based on the analysis by artificial intelligence tools of tens of thousands of online messages ...
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Article
CVI returns to growth in Q1, except for EMEA
CooperVision (CVI), the contact lenses’ division of Cooper Companies , started the 2021 fiscal year on a positive note with a return to growth after two consecutive quarters of declining sales. Total CVI quarterly revenues increased by 4 percent year-on-year to $507 million in reported terms, and by 1 ...
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ArticleGentle Monster mixes eyewear with cosmetics, cakes and artworks in new retail format
Gentle Monster , the South-Korean brand of luxury eyewear which is famous for the unusual design of its stores that integrate large contemporary artworks and futuristic robots, unveiled at the end of last month its new multi-brand retail format in the Gangnam district of Seoul in the ...
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Article
National Vision finds growth potential in a pandemic economy
National Vision , the U.S.-based optical retailer behind the America’s Best and Eyeglass World banners, registered a second consecutive quarter of double-digit increase in sales after big declines in the first half of the year due to the Covid-19 crisis impact. For its fourth quarter ended Jan. ...
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News briefs
OWA announces its award winners for 2021
The Optical Women’s Association (OWA) has announced the winners of its 2021 OWA Awards , though it is still working out details for their presentation. Gai Gherardi , co-founder and co-designer of l.a.Eyeworks , is receiving the Pleiades award for advancing the leadership of women in the optical ...
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News briefs
De Rigo and FILA renew their partnership
De Rigo and Fila Luxembourg , holder of the FILA brand rights, have agreed to renew the license agreement for the design, production and distribution of FILA eyeglasses and sunglasses in EMEA, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. The Italian eyewear maker and the sports and lifestyle brand ...
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News briefs
Fedon releases antimicrobial spray
Fedon Group and a technology company called Colors have produced an antimicrobial spray called Safe Go . The spray makes use of Polygiene ’s ViralOff treatment, purported to eliminate 99 percent of virus and bacteria on contact. The spray is being marketed for smartphones and other screen ...
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ArticleThe European soft contact lenses’ market decreased by 9% last year
The European wholesale market for soft contact lenses decreased by 9.1 percent year-on-year to €1,376 million in 2020 according to data collected in 13 countries by Euromcontact, the European federation of national associations and international contact lenses manufacturers. The countries included in this research are: Belgium, Luxemburg, Denmark, France, Germany, ...
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News briefsBritish Olympic champion launches rear-vision cycling glasses
Callum Skinner , the British former track cyclist and Olympic medalist, is launching special sunglasses that allow cyclists to see also behind them. The glasses were invented by a physicist, Alexander Macdonald , developed with Skinner and designed by Bob Henderson , an award-winning optical engineer, after raising more than ...
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News briefs
Kering invests in a secondhand luxury fashion items website
Kering , the French luxury group and mother company of Kering Eyewear , took a 5 percent share in the French unicorn Vestiaire Collective , an online platform selling secondhand luxury fashion items. Besides Kering, the U.S. investment firm Tiger Global Management also pitched in the new €178 million ...
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News briefs
Novacel plans to sell 200,000 pieces of its new progressive lens in 2021
Les Échos , the French business newspaper, reports that Novacel expects to sell 200,000 pieces of its new progressive lens in 2021. Launched in January and called Eden Zeta , the new lens is said to minimize visual aberrations and reduce visual fatigue. It incorporates Opalis Graphene , a ...
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Article
Essilux proposes a new slate of board directors
EssilorLuxottica ’s board has released a new slate of candidates for the board of directors that will be proposed to shareholders at the forthcoming annual general meeting (AGM). The company’s representatives are Leonardo Del Vecchio , Francesco Milleri , Paul du Saillant , Romolo Bardin , and Juliette Favre ...
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Article
Bausch Health expands board after deal with activist shareholder
The Canadian healthcare company Bausch Health will expand its board of directors to add two representatives of the activist investor Carl Icahn. With the two new appointments, the board will have 13 directors. Under the agreement, Brett Icahn and Steven Miller will be appointed to the ...
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ArticleGrandVision revises down slightly its Q4 results
In the fourth quarter, GrandVision posted revenues of €981 million, down by 1.8 percent at actual currency rates and up by 1.0 percent at constant currency rates. Comparable sales growth was 0.7 percent. In its preliminary results, released on Jan. 22, the Dutch optical retailer had estimated comparable ...
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Article
German suppliers saw their sales drop 9.5% last year
The Covid-19 pandemic put a brutal end to a decade of steady growth for the German eyewear industry, according to a new report by Spectaris, the national trade association. After a record sales’ increase of 5.4 percent in 2019, revenues of German suppliers of optical products dropped by 9.5 percent ...
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ArticleTOG sales down 9 percent in spite of improved product mix
The Thai Optical Group (TOG) posted overall revenues of 1,850 million baht (€50.9m-$61.5m) for its financial year ended Dec. 31, down by 9 percent from the previous year. Sales of lenses and services to external customers decreased by 8 percent year-on-year to THB 1,838 million (€50.5m-$61.2m), with sales of ...
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News briefs
Afflelou continues its expansion in Spain
Look Vision , the Spanish trade publication on our sector, reports that Alain Afflelou opened ten new shops in the country in the last nine months, including 8 franchised stores. The retail group plans to continue its development this year in Spain, its second largest market after France, adding ...
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ArticleContact lenses drove Alcon recovery in Q4
Alcon reported a 2 percent year-on-year increase in total revenues to $1,925 million for the fourth quarter of its 2020 financial year, marking a return to positive growth figures after two consecutive negative quarters. In constant currencies, total sales increased by 1 percent. Sales in the vision care ...
