All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 23 No. 3+4
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PDF NewsletterEyewear Intelligence Newsletter: Vol 23 - 3+4
Kering Eyewear up 45% in 2021 | Safilo boosts sales and profitability | Acquisitions drive Inspecs’ growth | Hoya posts record revenues and profits | Alain Afflelou family holding doubles its stake in the group | EssilorLuxottica starts rolling out its new sales program in Europe | Eastman to start new plant in France | 1-800 Contacts launches tech company | Netlens acquired by online retail group | Blue light glasses vs. blue light filters? | JINS tests violet light for myopia control
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News briefs
Maui Jim introduces lens for screen users
Maui Jim has released a lens designed to reduce eye strain for habitual users of digital screens, who are “constantly focusing and refocusing while shifting between various near objects.” The MauiPassport Boost comes in two flavors, both for single-vision wearers: the +0.50D Boost Zone, for mild to moderate eye fatigue, ...
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ArticleKering Eyewear comparable sales up 45% in 2021
Reporting its annual results last week, French luxury group Kering announced that external sales of its Kering Eyewear subsidiary reached a total of €726 million in 2021. After elimination of royalties and intragroup sales, Kering Eyewear posted consolidated revenues of €599 million, including the consolidation of the acquired Lindberg business ...
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News briefs
Alcon reports 11% increase in sales of contact lenses in Q4
Alcon generated sales of contact lenses totaling $533 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up by 11 percent compared to the year earlier in constant currency terms and benefiting from continuing recovery in international markets and growth in silicone hydrogen (SiHy) contact lenses, including Precision 1 products and ...
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Article
Paris Miki downgrades FY forecast
Japanese-based retail group Paris Miki continued to struggle in the third quarter of its FY03/22 financial year, with group revenues declining by 3.0 percent year-on-year to 11,792 million Japanese yen (€90.1m-$102.4m), however slightly improving from the 11.2 percent drop reported for the previous quarter. By region, the group reported a ...
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News briefs
Menicon upgrades FY forecast, builds new plant
Menicon kept growing at a fast pace in the third quarter of its current financial year both on its domestic market and internationally. The group reported a 17.8 percent year-on-year increase in total revenues to 74.7 billion Japanese yen (€570m-$648m), with a 12.5 percent hike in vision care sales that ...
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News briefs
Germany's lifted Covid regulations should open way for Opti
With the German government set to lift most Covid restrictions on March 20, Opti is looking forward to a nearly liberated trade show on May 13-15. The country’s federal-state conference came to this optimistic conclusion on Feb. 16, abolishing limits on visitor numbers, restaurants or night life and adjusting regulations ...
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News briefs
VSP Global extends partnership with blindness charity
VSP Global has renewed its partnership with the non-profit organization Prevent Blindness, on which it is bestowing a grant of $125,000. Through its own charity, VSP Eyes of Hope, the company will in addition be making other, in-kind contributions worth “up to $1.5 million.” VSP Eyes of Hope was founded ...
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News briefsNew managing director at Essilor France
Prûne Marre has become the managing director of Essilor France. She succeeds Lena Henry, who has left Groupe Essilor. Marre was hired in 2015 as director of marketing and communication for an Essilor subsidiary, the lens manufacturer BBGR, and rose in five years to become its president. She was most ...
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News briefs
Web Eyewear to Sponsor Alfa Romeo's F1 team
Web Eyewear has signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with the Alfa Romeo’s Formula One team, Orlen, which is under the management of the motorsports engineering firm Sauber Motorsport. The brand’s new image will be displayed on the team’s cars, helmets and racing suits. There will also be a capsule collection ...
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News briefs
Italia Independent hires a creative director
Italia Independent Group has hired Matteo Pontello as its creative director. Pontello will be working alongside another creative director – Lapo Elkann, who is also the group’s founder and president – and will be in charge of developing collections for both house brands and the two licensed brands Hublot Eyewear ...
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ArticleEastman’s new French plastics recycling project will apply to eyewear, too
French President Emmanuel Macron and Mark Costa, Eastman Chemical Company’s board chairman and CEO, jointly announced last month that the U.S.-based specialty materials company plans to invest up to $1 billion in a material-to-material molecular recycling facility in France that would become operational by 2025. The facility would use Eastman’s ...
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ArticleBlue light glasses vs. blue light filters?
Eyesafe, the American-based supplier of blue light protection solutions, has published a communication article on its website comparing the benefits of blue light glasses with those of its own blue light filters. Contrary to eyeglass lenses that block blue light near the eye, Eyesafe’s products aim at blocking it directly ...
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News briefs
Optic 2000’s HQ is going geothermal
In March, the Optic 2000 group will begin drilling a 200 meter shaft beneath its headquarters, which occupies some 12,000 square meters in the Parisian suburb of Clamart and employs some 450 people. This is the first stage in a project to shift the optical group away from carbon-based heating ...
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News briefs
WHO webinar to introduce myopia toolkit
In a webinar scheduled for March 15th, the World Health Organization (WHO) will be introducing a “toolkit” – developed with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – for the implementation of its Myopia program. The kit will include “evidence-based message libraries for key end-user groups [i.e., policymakers], along with operational guidance ...
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News briefs
Q1 revenues up at Carl Zeiss Meditec
Carl Zeiss Meditec reported revenues of €410.2 million for the first three months of its 2021/22 financial year, up by 11.2 percent in reported terms and by 10.5 percent in constant currencies from the previous first quarter’s €368.9 million. Sales in the Ophtalmic Devices unit grew year-on-year by 9.7 percent ...
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News briefs
OKIA exceeds PET-recycling goal
OKIA – the self-described “integrated eyewear service provider focusing on design, latest materials and technology development, production and logistics services,” with headquarters in Hong Kong – launched the “One Million Bottle Challenge” in 2019. The objective was to use the plastic of one million recycled PET bottles to manufacture eyeglass ...
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News briefs
Privé Revaux has a new GM and COO
On Jan. 21 Privé Revaux shifted George Schmidt from president, his title since November 2021, to general manager. The U.S. eyewear brand has also promoted Maureen Cavanagh from senior vice president of global sales to chief operating officer. Schmidt started out as a marketing manager for corporate sales at L.L.Bean ...
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News briefs
Italian Covid decree makes Mido attendance easier
The organizers of the Mido trade show in Milan, scheduled this year for April 30 to May 2, are delighted with Italy’s recent decree on Covid restrictions. The European Commission had already opened on June 1 of last year what it calls the European Gateway, which guarantees the validity in ...
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ArticleNetlens.com to be acquired by a multi-segment e-commerce platform
According to the Swedish trade publication Dagens industri, the assets of Netlens.com, an e-retailer of contact lenses and other products sold in pharmacies, are being acquired by Footway Group, the international operator of eight web stores in 24 markets. They are Caliroots, Solestory, Heppo, Brandosa, Belapadel, Runforest, Sportamore (acquired in ...
