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MILAN, Oct 29 (Reuters) -

Luxottica has just reported a 20.6% drop in profit for the third quarter, due to higher expenses and lower margins.

Italian eyewear maker Luxottica (LUX.MI) is looking to next year with a degree of optimism after a tough 2009, the group’s chief executive, Andrea Guerra, said on Thursday.

In 2010 the company aims to increase turnover and profit while reducing financial leverage, he added.

“2009 has been a challenging year but the worst is behind us. Today we are looking to the future with optimism,” Guerra said, speaking at a shareholders’ meeting.

He said 2010 should represent a return to normality.

“This for Luxottica means having a turnover that once more grows solidly, profits that improve more than proportionally (to sales) with strong cash generation,” he said.

Guerra said the ratio between core earnings (EBITDA) and debt should be below 2.5 times.

Luxottica has released third-quarter results later on Oct, 29.

(Reporting by Marie Louise Gumuchian)

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSLT68493020091029

According to figures of Essilor in third-quarter, the company continues to grow bigger and stronger. Over the past years, Essilor has made several acquisitions, which are considered to greatly contribute to the company’s overall performance. 

As the world’s largest maker of corrective lenses, Essilor International recently posted that the firm had gained a 6.3% sales growth in the third quarter. In addition, the company also predicted a better operating margin in 2009. Although the sales figure was below forecast, it was a significant increase. 

Greatly contributed by acquisitions, the quarterly sales reached 805 million euros. And the number from a Reuter poll among eight analysts averaged 822.2 million euros. This increase in sales significantly benefited from growth in Asia’s emerging economies. Essilor had launched specially adapted lenses in these countries. 

Sales in Europe and the United States have been traditionally main contributors to the performance of Essilor. However, sales in Spain only showed an upturn while in Nordic countries the demand was still lingering. The sales of the first nine months rose 8.4% to 2.5 billion euros. 

In January this year, Essilor split the posts of chairman and chief executive. Xavier remained chairman and the former chief operating officer Hubert Sagnieres served as CEO. Now promoting brands including Varilux and Crizal, Essilor had forecast an increase in sales this year. The company also estimated an improvement in operating margin. In the first half year, Essilor gained an 18.2 operating margin, which was better than expected. 

There is strong support for Essilor’s confidence and prospects. The first aspect is the firm’s product launches and bolt-on acquisitions. Moreover, there are promising signs of Essilor’s stocks. While stocks of Hoya of Japan and Carl Zeiss of Germany closed down, the stock of Essilor has gained more than a fifth of its value this year.

It is reported that Novartis AG gained a 1% increase of net profit in the third-quarter this year. As a drug maker, Novartis has benefit from increased sales from its pharmaceuticals division. According to figures released by Novartis, the profit of this third-quarter reached $2.1 billion, compared to $2 billion in the same period in 2008. 

What’s more, the net sales of the third quarter were $11.1 billion. Compared to $10.7 billion in the same quarter of the last year, there was a 3% increase. And this increase had been offset by the weakness of dollar in the currency markets. Without this effect, the actually increase could reach 7%. 

In fact, increases in both net sales and net profit mainly came from the great performance of Novartis’s pharmaceuticals business. According to estimation made by the company, there are about 90 million to 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine that will be produced by the end of the year. 

The huge production of swine flu vaccine is expected to bring an extra of around $400 million to $700 million to the net sales in the fourth quarter. Actually this significant benefit was triggered by the approval in the US and Europe for Novartis’ swine flu vaccine. 

This approval was only one of the key approvals of the company in 2009. According to Chief Executive Daniel Vasella, the firm’s great investments in R&D had shown excellent results, especially the anti-cancer therapy Afinitor and the biotechnology medicine Ilaris. 

However, there were still negative signs underlying the encouraging profit. An eye care company Alcon under Novartis actually greatly offset the overall profits of the firm. Alcon conducted a research and development project in this year. In addition, Novartis also suffered increased financing costs and a higher tax rate.

Vision-Ease Lens is one of the main players on the optical lens market. Now the firm is announcing a thinner and light lens product named Thindex. This new line from Vision-Ease is claimed to offer a higher ABBE value. And Thindex is going to be a new player in the 1.70 world.

 Headquartered in Ramsey, Minn, Vision-Ease manufactures a wide range of quality lenses, including LifeRx light-responsive lenses, Coppertone polarized lenses, SunRx polarized lenses as well as Illumina progressive line-free lenses. The release of Thindex further expands Vision-Ease’s business range. Vision Ease maintains a variety of sales channels, such as independent opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists, retail chains and dispensing markets all over the country.

 According to the senior product manager of Vision-Ease Lens (VEL) named John Bator, lenses from the company can meet the lens needs of customers towards changing fashion and comfort. And the coming Thindex 1.70 high index lens will provide further benefits. 

These new Thindex 1.70 high index lenses will be formally released on Nov. 16^th. As mentioned before, Thindex has basic features as thin and lightweight comfort. These lenses are available in several styles such as A SFSV, A FSV SuperHydro AR and a Novella Short Corridor progressive. 

Available in various powers and bases, each style of Thindex lenses has its own particular features. For instance, the Novella Short Corridor Progressive provides a 120 degree far vision field as well as unmatched comfort. Equipped with a soft design, this type of Thindex lenses offers a smooth power transition. 

Several coatings can be applied to types of Thindex lenses. SuperHydro anti-reflective coating can provide sharper night vision and reduce glare. At the same time, this coating also offers effective liquid repellence, high abrasion resistance and anti-static properties. Another coating called oleophobic coating is capable of resisting smudges and oil. 

Featuring a higher ABBE value which reduces chromatic aberration, Thindex 1.70 lenses are thinner and lighter than 1.67 lenses and 1.74 high index lenses.

There will be a new recapitalization within Safilo. Currently the company has a total net debt of 590 million euros. What’s more serious, Safilo has still suffered falling preliminary third-quarter results that both the turnover and core profit were much lower than the numbers of the same period last year. The core profit of this third-quarter was only 3.5 million, compared to 16.7 million a year ago. In addition, orders for the first two weeks of October suffered a 12.5% decrease compared with the same period of the last year. 

During the conference call with analysts, Chief Executive of Safilo Roberto Vedovotto also confessed that the operating performance of the group was very weak in October. Safilo has been a great victim of the global economic downturn. The sales of the company have greatly decreased during the last year. The firm had been long as the world’s second largest eye wear maker. But now, Safilo needs a large funds inflow in order to guarantee its survival. 

Currently, Safilo Chairman Vittorio Tabacchi’s family owns about 40% stake of the company. After the capital reconstruction, this number will be reduced to only 10%. The big buyer is Hal Investments, which is a Dutch shareholder. Hal Investments mainly focus on optical retail chain operators such as Pearle Europe and Grand Vision. 

Hal Investments only holds 2% of Safilo but its share will reach 49.99% in the near future. Hal is the main player that it will first buy Safilo stock for 13 million euros, which triggers a further investment of 250 million euros from Hal, Banca IMI and UniCredit. Moreover, Hal will buy Safilo’s non-core and loss-making retail chains in Spain, Australia and China for about 20 million euros. As a result, Safilo will receive a total of 283 million euro funds inflow. And it is said that the company will use about 185 million to repay its debt. 

After such a reconstruction, Safilo itself is expected to concentrate on production and its licenses, while Hal would focus on distribution.

Oakley has several new lines for 2009 that are more than mortal. One of the most outstanding product lines from Oakley in this year is the outrageous C SIC sunglasses. This type of glasses is quite an elite line. The most surprising factor is its price that each pair of C SIX sunglasses costs $4,500. This usually unaffordable price enables C SIX line to stay in a high end on the market. 

In addition, C SIX sunglasses in a high price do offer exclusive benefits. The first consideration should be given to the technology of its lenses. Lenses of C SIX glasses use Oakley’s panoply of optical techniques including XYZ lens geometry, iridium coatings as well as hydrophobic or oleophobic surface treatments. The second feature of C SIX glasses is their special frames. These sunglasses are equipped with carbon fiber frame CNC that is machined from a single chunk of composite. 

C SIX line from Oakley uses the carbon fiber in a special way. These sunglasses have diamond-tipped cutting bits slice across the fibers, which design grants them a distinctive look. C SIX glasses also provide titanium hinge assemblies which keep up the high-tech look and feel. Furthermore, the temples are allowed to be slightly flexible. 

The C SIX line also offers a less outrageous version named C SIX Aluminum, which only charges $1,500 each pair. Pit Boss is another elite line option from Oakley. This style uses Oakley’s O Matter moulded frame design. What’s more, Pit Boss glasses cost still $595 per pair. The Pit Boss line applies specially shaped titanium outer plates that perfectly match the rest of the frame.

In addition, the Oakley family still provides more fashionable options, such as Monster Dog and Straight Jacket.

Luxottica Group S.p.A. (NYSE: LUX; MTA: LUX), leader in the eyewear sector, on Oct 14 announced that its third quarter of 2009 results investor conference call will be available via audio webcast on Thursday, October 29, 2009, at 1:30 PM US ET (5:30 PM GMT, 5:30 PM
BST, 6:30 PM CET).

The audio webcast will be available to the financial community and the media from Luxottica Group’s corporate website at
www.luxottica.com/en/tools/webcast/index.html.

Please note that a slide presentation will be available for download from
Luxottica Group’s investor relations corporate website at
www.luxottica.com/en/investors/presentations shortly before the start of the
audio webcast.

Luxottica Group will report third quarter of 2009 results on October 29, 2009,
prior to the beginning of the investor conference call.

Facing the economic downturn, Luxottica is expected to continue to have sales decrease in the third quarter.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS135849+14-Oct-2009+PRN20091014

From April 2008 to March 2009, the number of complaints to the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS) reached 2,479, which was 35% higher than the figure in 2007. This increase in complaints has been revealed by the optical watchdog’s annual report, which was published last Friday.

 This nearly one-third higher number indicates that more and more customers have difficulty dealing with optical practices. These reported complaints include ‘buy one and get one free’ offers, failure to require prescriptions as well as refusal by eye doctors to measure the interpupillary distance. 

These complaints were made through different means, that 43% of the total 2,479 cases were received by letter, 9% by email and 48% were reported through telephone. 

The OCCS has also pointed out that some of the resolved cases have also been recorded, which collection method is different from that in 2007. In this case, the 35% increase in complaints could not actually reflect the real condition. Even the watchdog has admitted that this figure should not be considered as an indication of deterioration in optical standards. 

As an administrator of OCCS, Richard Wilshin thought that the increased number only indicated that more people were resorting to the OCCS. Those people just channeled their complaints elsewhere in the past, so that the increase of complaints as a whole in the industry may be not true. 

Wilshin also suggested that customers should keep greater awareness of the literal interpretation while taking advantages of offers. Some complaints actually came from improper expectations kept by customers. They expected to get the free frame with the same quality and price as the one that was to be paid.

www.eyeoverheard.com

It is reported that VSP and Altair have improved their efficiency by using RFID. As a VSP company, Altair has implemented RFID-based inventory management across their operations, using enterprise mobility software provided by MobileFrame, which is the leading provider of configurable mobile applications. Altair has recently acquired the 10,000 optician offices from Marchon Eyewear and its total independent offices are estimated to hopefully reach 25,000. 

Supporting independent eye care practitioners with advanced eyewear technologies and various brands, Altair has benefit significantly from the mobility software from MobileFrame. The software helps associates in Altair pick and ship orders. In addition, the firm also plans to use the RFID technology to keep an accurate inventory of all eyewear frames on consignment at optician offices worldwide. 

In the past, opticians were forced to scan consignment checklist forms in order to find frames that were in stock and those were missing. Now, the MobileFrame software frees their hands from this scanning. With the configurable RFID solution, the cumbersome checklist is turned into a user-friendly mobile application. 

Most application development tools require costly, time-consuming development to create business applications, which are always thought to be inflexible. In addition, these business applications need custom programming once business processes change. With the help of MobileFrame’s software, new mobile applications with any complexity can be provided flexibly. The flexible enterprise mobility software allows Altair to deploy its inventory management project efficiently. Any mix of business processes can be incorporated easily without expensive development efforts. The software can seamlessly deploy new applications to the field. 

According to CEO of MobileFrame, its configurable RFID software can flexibly and quickly deploy across any manufacturing operation. The company also uses the patented 100% Code Free platform architecture to easily implement the RFID technology. The RFID mobile solutions can even be simply deployed without any programming.

From: www.eyeoverheard.com

As Luxottica’s once proud retail chain, LensCrafters was considered as the jewel in Luxottica’s optical crown. However, LensCrafters is on the downturn in many aspects now, such as sales, customer number, quality personnel, Eyenet as well as moral. Some people think that the training that all LensCrafters people go through is a joke. They skip over anything important concerning the how and why of optics. 

The current M.B.E training is particularly considered as a joke that the LensCrafters executives require the associates to stand to sell the lenses to customers. A similar requirement is to take mirrors from the areas where the staff sits, in order to accelerate the process. Another stupid idea from the executives is that the associates are required to tell everyone entering to sign in. What’s more serious, LensCrafters resells returned frames. 

There are many things Luxottica can do if the company wants to turn things around. First Luxottica should return to basics by stopping all the cutesy ads. Some people do not buy at chains now but LensCrafters should do what chains do best. Chains including LensCrafters should always give customers a great deal. 

Products from LensCrafters are thought to charge over prices with old technology. Polarized and photochromic lenses at LensCrafters are also over prices now. In particular, their progressive lenses are extremely subpar. It is time for LensCrafters to lower its prices. 

LensCrafters’ staff actually needs proper training because most of them can not answer a basic optical question at all. They do not know how progressive lenses work. There are many more basic aspects of lenses that should be acquired by LensCrafters’ associates. 

Executives of LensCrafters are advised to get rid of M.B.E, which is believed to be an insult towards customers. Customers should be free to shop around. Chain stores of LensCrafters should bring in better products. Currently, many products in these stores are  outdated such as Vogue. 

Other suggestions for Luxottica include offering an ensured warranty, increasing the salary of associates as well as changing the LensCrafters executives.

From: www.eyeoverheard.com