Luxottica just posted record figures for the first quarter of this year with sales increasing to 2251.9 million euro. It got some help from the weak euro against the dollar but even without that help sales in the first quarter would have increased with 7,2% compared to the same period last year. Now the increase was even 22,2%. Both retail and wholesale contributed. Especially the positive developments at Lenscrafters and Sunglass Hut are worth mentioning. The last one shows double-digit growth figures quarter after quarter and now Lenscrafters as well seems to have found the way up. Reason for Luxottica to announce a serious investment in the two chains of 200 million per year (1 billion euro in the next 5 years). The money will be used to open new stores and restore existing ones. The introduction of Michael Kors has been very successful and when it comes to e-commerce the company learns a lot from the developments at Ray-Ban.com, Oakley.com and SunglassHut.com. In the mid-term Luxottica expects the online activities to contribute significantly to the Group’s revenues and growth. Of course all these positive developments are watched and noticed by the financial markets. Mid October last year Luxottica shares were worth 35,70 euro and last Monday 59 euro. An increase we might call spectacular. More about the developments at the world’s largest player in the industry tomorrow at Vision-Today!
