All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 23 No. 7+8

View all stories from this issue.

  • Screen Shot 2022-04-26 at 12.43.22
    PDF Newsletter

    Eyewear Intelligence: Vol 23 - No 7+8

    26 April 2022

    Essilux wraps up GrandVision buy-out, changes top management | Strong Q1 for EssilorLuxottica | Revenue boost for Kering Eyewear in Q1 | Mister Spex looks to accelerate revenue growth in 2022 | Pro Optik reports strong growth, plans further digitization | Afflelou sales rebound in Q2 after Q1 drop | KRYS GROUP announces €50 million investment plan | Eyewear industry stock prices down 13% in Q1 | Sales of contact lenses in Europe rebound slightly over 2019 level | Lens maker Shamir invests in eye tracker Blink | Mykita fully switches to sustainable acetate | Christopher Cloos swaps shares for ads with U.S. media group | EssilorLuxottica to acquire Fedon | Fedon annual revenues rise as demand rebounds from Covid pandemic

  • EssilorLuxottica logo
    Article

    Strong Q1 for Essilux

    25 April 2022

    Except for a slight deceleration in the U.S. market, all lights were green in the first quarter of the 2022 fiscal year for EssilorLuxottica with its two operating segments and all regions gaining momentum compared to the previous quarter. In reported terms, total revenue jumped by 38 percent year-on-year to ...

  • Kering
    Article

    Revenue boost for Kering Eyewear in Q1

    25 April 2022

    Kering Eyewear quarterly revenues reached €300 million for the first quarter of 2022, a significant jump from the €185 million reported in the previous year. The eyewear division of Kering was the fastest growing unit in Q1 for the French luxury group, whose total reported sales increased by 27 percent ...

  • #3_Model Banner_BioAcetate S70
    Sponsored article

    Yueheng and Wingram present sustainable solutions for eyewear

    22 April 2022

    BioAcetate S70 is a biobased and biodegradable material that improves performance and the environment while leading lens manufacturer, Yueheng, offers a plethora of sustainable options for its customers.

  • News briefs

    Johnson & Johnson sees 6.2% rise in Q1 contact lens sales

    22 April 2022

    Johnson & Johnson saw first quarter sales of contact lenses rise by a reported 6.2 percent to $910 million, reflecting a 10.6 percent rise at constant-currency rates and benefiting from the continued market recovery and strong performance of new products Acuvue Oasys Multifocal and Acuvue Define Fresh. Sales in the ...

  • News briefs

    Little interest in origin of optical products in France, poll says

    22 April 2022

    According to a recent poll by Acuité, about 25 percent of French opticians declared that their clients were regularly or almost always asking questions about the origin of the frames and lenses. In detail, 19 percent of surveyed opticians estimate that about half of their clients made such enquiries while, ...

  • News briefs

    L’Amy America and Eyewear Designs extend New Balance deal

    22 April 2022

    Eyewear producers L’Amy America and Eyewear Designs are extending their sales and distribution agreement for the New Balance brand in Europe, Canada, the Middle East and elsewhere. According to CEO and president Stephen Rappoport, the deal will enable L’Amy America to “continue offering complete collections of ophthalmic frames and sunglasses ...

  • News briefs

    Essilux completes sale of stores to Bene

    21 April 2022

    EssilorLuxottica and its unit GrandVision have completed the sale of 142 EyeWish stores in the Netherlands and 35 GrandOptical stores in Belgium to the Optic Retail International Group Bene, a member of MPG Austria. The disposal follows the commitments made by EssilorLuxottica with the European Commission to buy GrandVision. The ...

  • News briefs

    Bausch + Lomb to contract $2.7 bn loan before IPO

    21 April 2022

    Bausch Heatlh has announced that its subsidiary Bausch + Lomb was looking into securing a new credit agreement ahead of its Initial Public Offering (IPO), scheduled to take place in the course of this year. The company is seeking to contract a $2.5 billion term B loan and an additional ...

  • News briefs

    Kits eyeglasses’ volume up 60% in Q1

    21 April 2022

    Kits Eyecare, the Canadian-based online player, has announced that it delivered over 46,000 eyeglasses in Q1 2022, a 60 percent increase from the previous year. Initially a contact lens specialist, the company has developed a range of eyeglasses that has grown to 750 references, including private label and selected eyewear ...

  • News briefs

    JINS still driven by overseas markets

    21 April 2022

    Japanese-based optical retailer JINS has reported a 3.4 percent year-on-year increase in sales to 32.7 billion Japanese yen for the first half of its current financial year. Most of the growth came from the overseas business of the group where revenue increased by 14.3 percent to JPY 7.1 bn while ...

  • News briefs

    Biometric privacy class action against LVMH in the U.S.

    19 April 2022

    Bloomberg reports that LVMH’s U.S. subsidiary is being accused of illegally collecting biometric data from online shoppers through its eyewear virtual try-on tool. A proposed class action was filed in New York earlier this month with the plaintiffs arguing that the biometric data was being collected and stored on an ...

  • pro optik
    Article

    Pro Optik reports strong growth, plans further digitization

    19 April 2022

    Pro Optik reported strong results in 2021, outperforming the sector despite recent market headwinds, and consolidating its third place in the ranking of optical retail banners by sales in Germany, the company announced. Sales increased last year by around 11% to €144 million from €130 million in 2020, driven by ...

  • Shamir
    Article

    Lens maker Shamir invests in eye tracker Blink

    17 April 2022

    Shamir Optical, manufacturer of progressive and single-vision lenses and molds, is purchasing a stake in Blink Technologies, a company headquartered in the tech-rich city of Palo Alto, California, and whose chief product is software that tracks eye movements across screens and makes it possible to use such movements to perform ...

  • News briefs

    Bollé hires SVP of finance and operations for North America

    17 April 2022

    Bollé Brands has hired Peter Moore as its senior vice president of finance and operations for North America. From Carlsbad, California, he will be helping the company expand throughout the Americas. Before joining Bollé, Moore held several management positions at international apparel and footwear brands, including Birkenstock, La Perla North ...

  • Francesco Rinaldi Ceroni
    News briefs

    Safilo appoints president & CCO for North America

    17 April 2022

    Francesco Rinaldi Ceroni is to become Safilo Group’s president & chief commercial officer for North America on June 1, in replacement of Steve Wright, who is retiring. Rinaldi Ceroni has been with Safilo since June 2020, serving as president & global general manager of the Smith Optics brand. Before that ...

  • GrandVision_logo
    Article

    Essilux wraps up GrandVision buy-out, changes top management

    17 April 2022

    EssilorLuxottica announced on April 14 the successful completion of its public offer for the GrandVision shares that it did not own yet and the buy-out of the retail group’s remaining shareholders. The Italo-French industry giant now holds 100 percent of GrandVision shares. The finalization of the takeover comes almost three ...

  • Euromcontact
    Article

    Sales of contact lenses in Europe rebound slightly over 2019 level

    15 April 2022

    Euromcontact, the European federation of national associations and international contact lens manufacturers, calculated that the market value for soft contact lenses at wholesale level increased by 14.3 percent year-on-year to €1,991 million last year in the 34 countries researched. The list includes mostly European countries but also the U.A.E., Egypt, ...

  • News briefs

    Kenmark’s new collection to use Eastman materials

    13 April 2022

    Kenmark has launched the Spring Paradigm collection, with a 1970s aesthetic and frames and lenses made of Eastman’s Acetate Renew and Tritan Renew, respectively. It is the brand’s first collection to have received ISCC Plus certification in the U.S. Eastman Renew, which is being adopted by a growing number of ...

  • EssilorLuxottica logo
    Article

    EssilorLuxottica to acquire Fedon

    13 April 2022

    Taking another step forward in its vertical integration, EssilorLuxottica has announced its intention to acquire 90.9 percent of the share capital of Giorgio Fedon & Figli, the Italian supplier of eyewear cases and leather goods. The new investment by the Italo-French group is reminiscent of the take-over of Barberini in ...