All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 24 No. 23+24
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News briefs
Jimmy Fairly enters Italy and Spain
As previously announced, Jimmy Fairly is pursuing its international expansion strategy with the opening of its first shop in both Spain (Barcelona) and Italy (Milan) in the last few weeks. The direct-to-consumer brand, which was founded in 2011 and taken over by a French private equity fund ten years later, ...
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News briefs
Thélios relaunches Tag Heuer eyewear
Thélios and Tag Heuer, two entities of French luxury group LVMH, have announced their licensing agreement for the design, production and distribution of Tag Heuer-branded eyewear. The first collections, which the partners said would build on “the brand’s undisputed eyewear legacy,” will be revealed during LVMH Watch Week on Jan. ...
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PDF NewsletterEyewear Intelligence: Vol 24 - No 23+24
Report puts fresh numbers on German optical retail long-term trends | ANFAO taps Lorraine Berton as new president | An optical center in 15 minutes and a new investor for Vision Group | Magrabi aims to consolidate regional leadership before entering new markets | Synsam improves margins, expands EyeView roll out | Afflelou Group ends fiscal year on a strong Q4 | CooperVision slowed down by production capacity limitations | EssilorLuxottica integrates Bliz to sports portfolio | Shamir launches myopia management lens | Karün Eyewear to get a Walmart boost | Smart glasses win at CES 2024
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News briefs
French OEM maker rescued by three clients
Theo, J.F. Rey and John Dalia have joined forces to take over the business of Cemo Decovision, their common supplier, in an eleventh-hour rescue operation as the Morbier-based eyewear maker was put into liquidation on Nov. 17. In a press release published earlier this week, the newly-formed consortium explained that ...
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ArticleCooperVision slowed down by production capacity limitations
CooperCompanies has reported an 11 percent year-on-year revenue increase to $622.9 million for its CooperVision division in the last quarter of its 2023 fiscal year ended Sept. 30. Quarterly sales of contact lenses were up by 9 percent at constant exchange rates and by 11 percent organically compared with Q4 ...
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News briefs
Carl Zeiss AG appoints new CFO
Carl Zeiss AG has appointed Stefan Müller as its new chief financial officer from Jan.1, 2024, and in replacement of Dr. Christian Müller who left at his own request this fall after more than twenty years at the company. Stefan Müller is currently CFO of Paul Hartmann, a German-based healthcare ...
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News briefs
Bags and accessories’ luxury sales up 15 % in 2022
Luxury good sales in the bag and accessories segment, in which eyewear is included, went up by 15.3 percent year-on-year to $3.6 billion in 2022 according to Deloitte’s annual ranking of the hundred largest luxury companies worldwide. The category, which accounts for approximately 1 percent of total luxury goods’ sales, ...
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News briefs
Fast-growing MEI to expand HQ and U.S. site
MEI, the Italian-based supplier of equipment for lens laboratories and shops, has announced the start of expansion work to double the surface of its headquarters in the Bergamo province from 10,000 to 20,000 square meters and the construction of a new site in the U.S. as its business keeps growing ...
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ArticleKarün Eyewear to get a Walmart boost
Karün Eyewear, the Chile-based brand of eyewear made from recycled and traceable materials, has signed a nationwide, but non-exclusive, partnership with Walmart for the distribution of its frames in the U.S. retail giant’s Walmart Vision Centers. ”We chose to work with Walmart as our U.S. national retailer to expand access ...
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ArticleReport puts fresh numbers on German optical retail long-term trends
Zentralverband der Augenoptiker und Optometristen (ZVA), the German association of opticians and optometrists, has released the four-year update of its BranchenStrukturerhebung report, an analysis of the German optical retail sector’s structure put together with research company GFK. It provides a number of market indicators for the year 2022 and, for ...
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News briefsTom Davies goes full Wonka with giraffe-milk smelling frames
Tom Davies has partnered once again with Warner Bros. Discovery to design bespoke frames for two characters in Wonka, the upcoming movie inspired by Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory children book and starring Timothée Chalamet. Previous collaborations between the British eyewear designer and U.S. studio included eyewear featured ...
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News briefs
Thélios launches Middle East branch
Thélios has officially launched its Middle East subsidiary with an event at the Dubai Opera Garden gathering the company’s management, clients and the media for the presentation of the Spring 2024 collections. Thélios’ subsidiary will be located in the Dubai Design district and operational from Jan. 1, 2024. It is ...
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ArticleMagrabi aims to consolidate regional leadership before entering new markets
Following up on our article last February about the expansion of MAGRABI Retail Group, the leading optical retailer in the Middle East region, we talked with Yasser Taher, who was appointed CEO of the family-owned group at the start of this year, after having served as Chief Operating Officer since ...
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ArticleShamir launches myopia management lens
Shamir Optical Industry, the Israeli-based lens manufacturer, has announced the launch of Optimee, its first lens in the child myopia management segment. The launch follows the first-year results of a clinical trial with 126 children in Israel which showed that the new lens slowed by 43 percent the axial elongation ...
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ArticleSmart glasses win at CES 2024
Four pairs of smart-eyewear are among the winners of the latest Innovation Awards from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), whose 2024 edition is scheduled for Jan. 9-12, 2024, in Las Vegas. Ampere First up – in alphabetical order by company – is Dusk Rx, which the producer, Ampere, describes as ...
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News briefs
U.S. ECPs’ economic outlook worsens
The economic outlook of U.S. eye care professionals (ECPs) worsened in Q3 compared to Q2 according to the quarterly research report by The Vision Council, and an increasing proportion among them is less confident that they will be able to meet their revenue goals this year. As in previous quarters, ...
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ArticleANFAO taps Lorraine Berton as new president
Lorraine Berton has been elected as the new president of Italian eyewear association ANFAO, becoming the first woman to hold the position and succeeding Giovanni Vitaloni, who had served as president since 2017. Berton will lead the association for the next four years. Berton is the co-owner along with her ...
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News briefs
Lanson opens Vietnamese factory
Chinese-based OEM manufacturer Lanson Optical has announced the opening of a new factory in Hanoi, Vietnam, its first production facility outside mainland China. The company said that the political and economic environment in Vietnam as well as the many free-trade agreements the country signed with other regions in recent years ...
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News briefs
Microoled updates app to tap Strava’s 100 million users
MICROOLED, the French-based supplier of micro displays for eyewear and other products, has announced a major update in its ActiveLook smart eyewar application for Apple Watch that will make it compatible with Strava. Strava is one of the leading subscription platforms for sports enthusiasts with over 100 million users in ...
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ArticleAfflelou Group ends fiscal year on a strong Q4
Afflelou Group ended its fiscal year with a strong fourth quarter as network sales grew by 8.1 percent year-on-year to €232.9 million, accelerating from the 4.2 percent growth reported in the previous quarter. The uptick was particularly noticeable in France as sales grew by 7.3 percent year-on-year in Q4, compared ...
