The Board of Directors of Essilor International met on July 27 to approve the financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2017. Consolidated revenue amounted to €3,909 million in the first six months of 2017, an increase of 6.9% at constant exchange rates. Free cash flow advanced 34% as reported and 13% excluding exceptional charges.
Revenue growth in the Lenses & Optical Instruments division of 5.8% in constant currency, of which 2.7% like-for-like growth, including:
- Gains in North America where like-for-like sales growth accelerated from 2.3% in Q1 to 3.1% in Q2
- Resilient performance in Europe supported by the recent Eye Protect System™ and Varilux® X series™ launches
- An expansion of sales in fast growing markets dampened by a decline in Brazil
- A 14% increase in online sales
At June 30, 2017, Sunglasses & Readers division revenue was down 1.5% like-for-like after an improved second quarter. In North America, a positive sunwear season enabled FGX to return to satisfactory growth in the second quarter, making up for some of the shortfall in the first quarter. Costa® sales maintained robust momentum underpinned by geographic expansion as well as the diversification and development of its distribution networks.
The Equipment division delivered like-for-like revenue growth of 11.7%, fueled by robust new machine sales combined with slower growth in after-sales. Demand was particularly strong for the high-capacity equipment introduced late last year, especially the new VFT-Orbit 2TM digital generator and Multi-FLEXTM polisher.
On May 11, Essilor shareholders convened for a general meeting and holders of double voting rights convened for a special meeting, approved the combination of Essilor and Luxottica. To date, Essilor and Luxottica have jointly filed with the antitrust authorities in several jurisdictions. The two companies’ shared objective in cooperation with the relevant authorities is to close the antitrust process around the end of the year.
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