All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 23 No. 13+14
View all stories from this issue.
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ArticleJulbo is changing hands
Christophe and Matthieu Beaud, co-owners and respectively CEO and general manager of Julbo, and Peugeot Frères Industries have announced an agreement for the acquisition of a majority share of the family eyewear company by Peugeot Frères Industry. The Beaud family, unrelated to Jules Beaud, the founder of the company ...
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PDF NewsletterEyewear Intelligence: Vol 23 - No 13+14
Leonardo Del Vecchio passes away at 87 | Italian eyewear exports shot up in Q1, ANFAO to launch own sustainable label | Eyewear companies stocks down by 17% in Q2 | Higher demand for high-index lenses drives Mitsui vision care unit | Transatlantic retail alliance inks deals with Hoya and Rodenstock | Fielmann’s Q2 sales rise 8%, profits squeezed | Afflelou Q3 growth driven by COVID recovery, DOS and hearing aids | Lenskart accelerates in Asia with Owndays’ takeover | Julbo is changing hands | Fast-growing Inspecs boosts manufacturing base | Eschenbach launches online Academy to grow low vision segment | Italia Independent plans cash call, restructuring after losses widen in 2021 | Paris Miki to invest €50m in 3-year turnaround plan | Arts Optical up 55% in 2021, back in the black
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News briefs
Thélios acquires metal working specialist
Thélios has announced the acquisition of Metallart, a company specialized in artisanal metal working, such as shearing and coining, for the eyewear industry. Founded in 1976, the company is based near the LVMH eyewear subsidiary’s factory in Longarone, Italy. Thélios said that the acquisition enabled it to bring in-house specific ...
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News briefs
Gadol hires a network director
The optical buying group Gadol, a division of Optic 2000 Group, has hired Christine Gabriel to be director of its network, reports L’OL magazine. Gabriel most recently spent more than 17 years as director of Club Opticlibre. Before that she was director of international supply at GrandVision, where she helped ...
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News briefs
Italia Independent to lay off 29 employees
Italia Independent Group, the Italian maker and distributor of eyewear and sunglasses, has informed the trade unions that it will lay off 29 employees of its site in Venaria Reale, near Turin, where it has its headquarters and a warehouse. The decision is part of the restructuring plan that the ...
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ArticleEyewear companies stocks down by 17% in Q2
Contrary to other sectors such as energy, aerospace, defense or agriculture, which saw their stock value increase significantly in the last few months, the eyewear industry was not among the beneficiaries from the move of global money away from investments in Big Tech companies. Indeed, the 23 eyewear public companies ...
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News briefs
Mitsui Chemicals co-founds VC fund
Mitsui Chemicals of Tokyo – maker of lens materials and coatings, among many other products – has established a venture capital fund with the independent Japanese VC firm Global Brain Corporation. Called 321FORCE, the fund will be investing in start-ups in Mitsui’s four business lines (life & healthcare, mobility, ICT ...
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ArticleFielmann’s Q2 sales rise 8%, profits squeezed
The Fielmann Group reported external sales of €505 million in the second quarter of 2022, an eight percent increase compared to the year earlier, despite a drag on its top line performance from the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic and as consumer confidence increasingly takes a hit from high inflation and rising ...
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ArticleItalian eyewear exports shot up in Q1, ANFAO to launch own sustainable label
Exports of Italian eyewear accelerated sharply in the first quarter of 2022, jumping by 35.3 percent year-on-year to a total value of €1.190 million, according to the most recent data from ANFAO, the Italian Eyewear Industry Association. Compared with the pre-COVID 2019 year, they were up by 32.3 percent. The ...
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News briefs
ic berlin acquires German startup’s carbon-fiber technology
ic! berlin has acquired the assets of Kerl Eyewear, a startup company created five years ago by two friends, Jaromir Ufer and Johannes Dillinger, in Göttingen, Germany. The acquisition includes Kerl Eyewear’s know-how and carbon-fiber technology. The company has developed FLEXCARBON, a proprietary carbon material inspired by aerospace engineering and ...
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ArticleTransatlantic retail alliance inks deals with Hoya and Rodenstock
KRYS GROUP, the French optical retail leader, has joined forces with Canadian-based Newlook Vision Group and General Optica, the Iberian retail subsidiary of De Rigo, to create a new purchasing alliance. Called Global Optical Alliance (GOAL), the organization has just announced the signature of partnerships with Hoya Vision Care and ...
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News briefs
The U.S. optical retail market consolidated further in 2021
The top 10 optical retailers significantly increased their share of the U.S. market to roughly 40 percent or $15.2 billion in value, in parts through acquisitions according to the annual report by Vision Monday. The top 3 positions in the ranking are held by Vision Source ($2.7 bn in total ...
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News briefs
MIDO drops schedule for its Digital Platform
MIDO has scheduled a series of new online conferences for its Digital Platform. Creativity Day by ANFAO will fall on July 5 and cover fashion trends and the metaverse. Retail Week on July 12-15 will discuss local retail strategies, the post-pandemic retail associate and airport retail. And Future Consumer Day ...
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ArticleLenskart accelerates in Asia with Owndays’ takeover
Lenskart, the fast-growing Indian retail group, has announced the acquisition of a majority share in Owndays, a Japanese-based DTC eyewear brand with 460 stores and e-commerce operations in 13 Asian countries, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. Lenskart acquired the shares in Owndays from L Catterton, an investment company affiliated ...
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ArticleFast-growing Inspecs boosts manufacturing base
The Inspecs group has reported a four-fold increase in annual revenues to $246.5 million for 2021 from $47.4 million in 2020, as the topline was boosted by its multiple acquisitions in the last year and a half. In particular, the business of Eschenbach, which was taken over in December 2020, ...
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News briefs
Milleri succeeds Del Vecchio as EssilorLuxottica chairman
In the wake of the death of Leonardo Del Vecchio, founder of Luxottica, the board of EssilorLuxottica has appointed Francesco Milleri to serve out Del Vecchio’s term as chairman of the combined company. It has also confirmed Paul du Saillant as EssilorLuxottica’s deputy CEO and appointed a new, non-independent director: ...
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Walmart to acquire Memomi Labs
Memomi Labs, a specialist in virtual try-ons through artificial intelligence, deep learning and augmented reality, has entered into a deal for its acquisition by Walmart, which seeks to “deliver integrated, omnichannel healthcare.” According to the huge American retailer, the acquisition should close in the coming weeks. Employees of Memomi will ...
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ArticleAfflelou Q3 growth driven by COVID recovery, DOS and hearing aids
The Afflelou group has reported a strong increase in network sales for the third quarter of its current fiscal year, thanks mostly to a strong performance in the French-based retailer’s domestic market while the activity in Spain was more subdued (see chart). Afflelou Group- Q3 Network Sales - ...
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News briefs
B+L expands its board
Bausch + Lomb (B+L) has expanded its board of directors by two seats and filled them with Brett Icahn and Gary Hu, both from Carl C. Icahn and affiliates (Icahn Group). B+L has entered into an amended and restated Director Appointment and Nomination Agreement with Icahn Group, after the distribution ...
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Ineurop appoints new chairwoman
Ineurop, the umbrella organization for six independent European optical retail groups, has appointed Janika Jürgens from Brillen-Profi as its chairwoman, Euro Focus reports. Based in the Netherlands, Ineurop regroups over 4,500 independent opticians through Brillen-Profi in Germany (1,880 members), Club Opticlibre in France (1,338), Netcity in Italy (900), Optitrade Retailgroep ...
