Luxottica Group, the Italian eyewear giant and owner of sports eyewear operator Oakley, has reported first quarter 2009 sales of €1,312.3 million (US$1,760 million), down by 6.2% at current exchange rates and by 11.6% at constant exchange rates.
Oakley sales were up 7% in the first quarter of 2009. Yet, even with support from Oakley and the resurgent Ray-Ban brand Luxottica faced challenges across the remainder of its luxury eyewear business.
According to Andrea Guerra, Luxottica’s Chief Executive Officer, Oakley’s growth was led by its sun and prescription divisions, which saw double digit growth in Europe.
Luxottica is also pinning its hopes on the new Oakley Jawbone, a sports performance frame that has been showcased at selected cycling events in recent weeks.
The Oakley Jawbone features Oakley’s new Switchlock system which supplements the usual snap in interchangeable lenses. The Jawbone’s lenses are encapsulated in a hinged frame. This has a lower section that opens for easy access, to enable lens changing with minimal handling. The Jawbone’s suspension system also isolates the lens from stresses and minimises optical distortion.
In its quarterly release Luxottica underlined that Q1 2009 was a particularly challenging period for the eyewear market, due to the structural changes that it is currently undergoing. Demand and the market in general were affected by three main factors: consumer attitudes, rapid reduction in inventories by clients in all geographical areas and the slowdown in the global economy.
The impact from the reduction in inventory levels by clients was particularly evident in the results of Luxottica’s wholesale division, where sales were down by 19.0% after 20 consecutive quarters of growth.
At the same time, the company noted that some positive signals are now being seen on all three of these fronts.
“After the first four months of 2009, we are already seeing a clear difference between the January to February and March to April periods,” said Andrea Guerra, Chief Executive Officer of Luxottica Group. “In fact, in March and April our results have stabilised in North America, while improving in nearly all other markets. April ended with sales results ahead of last year. In fact consolidated sales year-to-date were down by only 3% compared to the same period last year.”
