All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 23 No. 17+18

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    Eyewear Intelligence: Vol 23 - No 17+18

    13 September 2022

    Fielmann invests €65 m in high-tech facility in Czech Republic | Fielmann sees profits squeezed in H1 | Challenging market conditions lead Mister Spex to downgrade outlook | Synsam keeps up growth as Swedish factory comes online | Warby Parker slashes sales outlook, cuts jobs despite 14% growth in Q2 | National Vision cuts sales outlooks as Q2 sales continue decline | CVI up 11% organically, sees myopia management segment breaking even | Inspecs lifts HY profits but sees tough trading in Europe | Materialise sees its eyewear volumes triple within 5 years | Nathalie Blanc partners with L’Amy America for the U.S. market | Jimmy Fairly to boost retail network, enter 3 new countries | IOFT reopens for international business | New myopia control trial results announced at IMC | The Vision Council releases its consumer survey update for Q2

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    Jason Kirk hosts a series of podcasts for Silmo

    13 September 2022

    Jason Kirk, Kirk & Kirk co-founder, is hosting a series of podcast interviews, with eyewear industry and outsiders, for Silmo. Named The Right Optics by Silmo, the podcasts will be broadcast this week at https://shows.acast.com/the-right-opti.Interviewees are Nada Vuksic of Bruce Eyewear, a Vancouver-based optical retailer, Daniel Feldman, executive editor of ...

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    New owners for WestGroupe

    12 September 2022

    Canadian healthcare organization Fyi Health Group has announced that it was acquiring WestGroupe, the Montreal-based eyewear manufacturer and distributor. Fyi is active in the eyecare and medical aesthetics’ sectors. The group operates the Fyidoctors eye clinics in Canada and the U.S. as well as other smaller optometry and optical retail ...

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    Five Italian suppliers create new consortium

    12 September 2022

    Five Italian suppliers of optical products and services have joined forces in a new consortium aimed at “promoting the sector and safeguarding opticians”. Called OTTIMI, for Ottica Made in Italy, the organization regroups Eurocrom 4 (press, graphics, packaging), Filab (ophthalmic lenses), Safilens (contact lens technology), TutorNET (software and tools for ...

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    Silhouette reaches carbon-neutrality

    12 September 2022

    Silhouette International has announced that is has reached carbon neutrality in September 2022. The Austrian-based group said it has reduced its carbon emissions by more than 50 percent between 2015 and 2021, with a strong focus on a sustainable energy mix including solar, wind, hydro, biomass and biogas that covers ...

  • Vision Council
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    The Vision Council releases its consumer survey update for Q2

    12 September 2022

    The Vision Council has released its quarterly update for its Consumer inSights research. The report is based on a survey of over 15,000 U.S. adult consumers who answered questions about their vision correction, eye exams and purchases of eyeglasses, contact lenses, readers and sunglasses. We are sharing here a few ...

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    New myopia control trial results announced at IMC

    8 September 2022

    EssilorLuxottica released an update on its clinical trial for its myopia management lens Essilor Stellest at the International Myopia Conference that took place in Rotterdam a few days ago. The three-year clinical trial, which was conducted together with the Wenzhou Medical University with over 200 children aged 8 to 13, ...

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    Challenging market conditions lead Mister Spex to downgrade outlook

    8 September 2022

    Mister Spex has reported mixed results for the second quarter and the first half of 2022 as, despite a growth acceleration in Q2 and the start of Q3, sales levels remained well below expectations and led the omnichannel retailer to downgrade its forecast for the year and to adjust its ...

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    Demetz launches a safety eyewear collection

    7 September 2022

    Leveraging its expertise in prescription sports glasses and goggles, Demetz, a subsidiary of Opal-Demetz, is branching out into safety eyewear. The French company is launching a first collection of seven designs for industry workers, in line with EU safety regulations. 

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    Marchon’s Dragon partners with Plastic Bank

    7 September 2022

    Dragon, the in-house sports brand of Marchon Eyewear, has signed a global partnership with Plastic Bank, a social enterprise focused on stopping more plastic to reach the oceans by collecting it within 50 kilometers of coastlines and waterways. Plastic Bank says it has stopped 60 million kilos of plastic to ...

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    Jimmy Fairly to boost retail network, enter 3 new countries

    5 September 2022

    Jimmy Fairly, the French-based and vertically integrated eyewear brand, has announced plans to more than double its number of stores in France and the U.K. by 2025 and to enter three new European countries in the coming months. Founded in 2011 by two young French entrepreneurs, Antonin Chartier and Sacha ...

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    Safilo launches in-house digital academy

    5 September 2022

    As part of its digital transformation plan, the Safilo Group is launching an in-house academy in partnership with Digital On Things (DOT), a consulting IT firm specialized in the Salesforce systems. Called “The Digital Force”, the program started on Sept. 5 with the kick-off of the recruitment phase in collaboration ...

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    Visottica issues a €5m bond

    2 September 2022

    Visottica Group, the Italian-based supplier of eyewear components, has issued a €5 million bond to support its future growth and investments, the company announced at the end of August. The emitted bond was placed by the Intesa Sanpaolo bank and will mature in 2029. Giovanni Montalban, CEO of Visottica, stressed ...

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    Mondottica partners with ADCL in France

    2 September 2022

    French eyewear company ADCL has signed a partnership with Mondottica for the distribution in France of four of the UK-based company licensed eyewear brands: Sandro, Maje, Christian Lacroix and Hackett. The new distribution setup started on Sept. 1. Olivier Petitfils, general manager of ADCL told us that the addition of ...

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    ANFAO worried about eyewear SMEs with energy crisis

    2 September 2022

    According to the Italian Eyewear Industry Association (ANFAO), the cost of energy – historically about 5 percent of an eyewear company’s expenditures – has risen to the point of becoming difficult to deal with. “This crisis is no longer limited to energy but has become global, and it has once ...

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    Silmo announces 750 exhibitors for its next edition

    2 September 2022

    The organizers of Silmo have announced that 750 companies, including 70 percent from outside France, have confirmed their participation to the next edition of the show from Sept. 23 to 26 in Paris. This represents a significant uptick from the first post-pandemic show last year that had gathered 450 exhibitors ...

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    Materialise sees its eyewear volumes triple within 5 years

    2 September 2022

    Created in 2014, the eyewear division of Materialise, the Belgian-based 3D printing specialist, has introduced several innovations for 3D-printed glasses and has established itself as the market leader in the field. Ahead of the Silmo trade show, we sat down with Alireza Parandian, the unit’s manager, to reflect on the ...

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    CVI up 11% organically, sees myopia management segment breaking even

    1 September 2022

    CooperCompanies has reported a 2 percent year-on-year increase to $566.3 million in sales for its CooperVision unit in Q3, slowed down by strong currency headwinds. The division’s revenue grew by 10 percent at constant exchange rates and by 11 percent on an organic basis compared to the same quarter last ...

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    New house brand for Kenmark Eyewear

    30 August 2022

    Kenmark Eyewear is launching internationally Elliot Ives, a new house brand of optical frames for men and women positioned on the affordable designer eyewear segment. The new brand’s collection comprises 30 styles, each available in two sizes, for a total of 180 SKUs. Materials used include memory metal alloy, form-fitting ...

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    Paris Miki back in the black in Q1

    30 August 2022

    Japanese-based retail group Paris Miki has reported a 10.9 percent year-on-year increase in Q1 revenue to 11.5 billion Japanese yen (€83m). The overall growth was driven by the Japanese market where company sales rose by 11.9 percent versus Q1 2021, totalling ¥10.3 billion (€74m), with comparable store sales up by ...