Armani

[Mikol]

Well , while visitng a Sunglass Hut today I saw Prada on the shelves..........what is interesting is that a buddy of mine just informed me that Luxottica has lost the liscense with Armani.

Is this just coincidence? Any body heard anything?


:cheers:
Mikol

[Jo]

• Reuters: UPDATE - Luxottica lowers forecasts after Armani deal ends Thursday November 21, 10:01 am ET
• Dow Jones Business News: Luxottica to Stop Selling Armani Eyewear in 2003 Thursday November 21, 12:49 pm ET
• Press Release Newswire: Luxottica Group and Armani Group Announce Expiration of License Agreement Thursday November 21, 7:40 am ET

[Chris Ryser]

For news purpose discussion on "Hornets Nest" could you let us know where you picked up above "news lines" Thanks in advance

[chip anderson]

Wish you had told me before Wednesday, before I placed a large order to re-stock my Lux/Armani's.

Chip

[John R]

Chris Ryser said:
For news purpose discussion on "Hornets Nest" could you let us know where you picked up above "news lines" Thanks in advance

Yahoo......
Just look at the links Chris...

[Jo]

chip anderson said:
Wish you had told me before Wednesday, before I placed a large order to re-stock my Lux/Armani's.

Chip

Chip,

That's allright, we just re-stocked our Emporio's about two weeks ago.

Chris Ryser said:
For news purpose discussion on "Hornets Nest" could you let us know where you picked up above "news lines" Thanks in advance

Chris,

I found all of the articles at Yahoo! finance. The actual URL follows:

• http://finance.yahoo.com/?u

To find the individual articles I just entered the ticker symbol LUX and searched.

[Chris Ryser]

Jo said:
Chris,

I found all of the articles at Yahoo! finance. The actual URL follows:

• http://finance.yahoo.com/?u

To find the individual articles I just entered the ticker symbol LUX and searched.

were wondering where you got it from. Thanks god you did not get it from VM which I thought it was. Harry was right.

We appreciate brilliant minds like you. Follow the argument about ineffiecient news in optical magazines, which i suspect, or better know, being controlled by advertisng money.
:)

[Chris Ryser]

John R said:
Yahoo......
Just look at the links Chris...

My apologies John, I am still learning handling computers and internet,,,,,,,,,,,,,then comes the other problem,,,,,,,,,getting older..........short term memory,,,,,,,,,,,and on and on

[chip anderson]

Won't miss Armani too much as they were once my hottest line and haven't moved much the last couple of years. However, seems to me that the last time Luxottica dropped a line, they would not take the pieces back and allow credit on other Lux lines and did not have parts and replacements after a while. I think I also had to place a "minimum" order to put whatever Lux line we had to replace the origional line.

Hope I remember this wrong.

Chip

[Chris Ryser]

chip anderson said:
Won't miss Armani too much as they were once my hottest line and haven't moved much the last couple of years. However, seems to me that the last time Luxottica dropped a line, they would not take the pieces back and allow credit on other Lux lines and did not have parts and replacements after a while. I think I also had to place a "minimum" order to put whatever Lux line we had to replace the origional line.

Hope I remember this wrong.

Chip

Do you remember the uproar when Luxottica went into the retail business by buying Lenscrafters?

[Mikol]

Chip,

Did you use a buying group? We have been able to return items in the past through the buying group that we made the purchase through.......

good luck

Mikol:cheers:

[LENNY]

I heard that Lux is getting a Prada distribution!

[Mikol]

If they lost Armani and now I see Prada in SH..............Are they the new distributer?

Thanks
Mikol

[Foveator]

I was a pretty good sized account for Luxottica until the Lenscrafters purchase. I kept Armani, although its numbers have dropped off a lot over the past few years. In fact, I think that I had more new Armani reps than new frame styles over the past few years. Earlier in the year, Luxottica closed my Armani account since I didn't reach their minumum sales goals. They did not take back any of the couple dozen pieces I got stuck with, although they offered to honor warantees. Whoopie!

Without Armani, Luxottica is a distributer of lots of relatively (or totally, in the USA) unknown designer lines. (There is a certain irony that at Lenscrafters, they manufactured Asian knock offs of the Armani frames for less cost, but higher margins.) I never had a problem with their quality, but I had a major problem with company "goals" for my practice. I never joined EyeMed specifically because they required the annual purchase of hundreds of frames. Maybe it's my old Yankee upbringing, but nobody tells me how to run my business, thank you. The whole thing rubbed me the wrong way.

BTW, the official info is available from at http://www.luxottica.com .

Armani was the shining star in the Luxottica line, essentially its flagship. I think that there will be a vaccuum created in the line and a corresponding drop in the level of prestige for the whole company. After all, Marchon has Calvin Klein, Safilo has Ralph Lauren, and now Luxottica will have Brooks Brothers?

For those of you with significant Luxottica board space, how do you think this will effect you?

Jeff

[LENNY]

I feel sorry for My GA rep!

Intresting !
There is no Direct info from any Lux Reps!?

Are they all loking for a job?

[Johns]

I called Lux and the telesales lady said, "Why would you ever want to send your Aramani frames back ? It's business as usual here as far as Armani goes. However, if your rep does authorize any returns, there will be a 10% restocking fee." I said to her that the only thing that is "business as usual" is that they're trying to stick their accounts again. (phone call was 11/25/02, 11:15AM)


OK Folks !! Get ready to see the biggest Armani sale in the history of Lenscrafters...:hammer:

[Jo]

I don't know Johns. According to the press releases I posted above, Armani still owns Luxottica stock. I think we will have to wait and see who gets the license to distribute the Armani lines.

[Johns]

Jo,

I know he still owns the stock...the sale I was refering to @ LC would be all the discontinued Armanis that the accounts send back.

BTW I've owned stock in LUX since it was first issued (and I worked for their competition). I don't like the company, but I'll be the first to tell you that they don't make too many mistakes. I still put my money on them.

My bet is that they'll stick with an Italian house. Armani owns stock in Lux, but he may own stock in a few other optical manufacturers as well...

-or- maybe Lux will continue to manufacture it, but Armani will use w/ his own distribution network.

-or- maybe Marcolin will come back from Asia in time to salvage their reputation (if it's not too late) as an Italian manufacturer.

-or- we know that Safilo has a pretty good distribution network that can handle another line.

It sure is fune guessing

[Jo]

We have been trying to guess the same thing. Marchon probably won't get the license. It would be odd to pick up Calvin's competitor and we see both lines suffering if that happened; Calvin seems to be dropping in popularity as it is. Ralph Lauren is a designer but the line has a whole different feel from Armani and Calvin. I would like to see what Safilo would do with the line but don't know how they would pull off the Armani look. We didn't even think of Marcolin.

We only have Emporio Armani so I guess we aren't in too bad shape. They wouldn't give us Giorgio because we carry Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein.

As I mentioned, Calvin sales have been dropping; however, Ralph Lauren is still big. I think I may be getting too old. These were all designers I grew up with; I missed the Tommy Hillfiger popularity. I think my taste in designers may be a bit dated and out of step with what twenty-somethings of today are interested in; we've started to hear folks asking for Kate Spade more. If these names don't pack the punch they used to, is it even worth worrying about.

[HarryC]

We were just discussing today about who is inline to pick up the Armani account. I am going to put my money on an Italian designer that has a better reputation such as Safilo. I don't think Marchon will get it because they carry Armani's biggest competitor in the optical industry. Perhaps the line will be manufactured by Armani itself?
I remember Going to the Vision Expo when Lux bought lenscrafters. Their were people picketing in front of the Luxotica booth. Me and my father chuckled, as we knew that they were paid by Marchon to do that. That was when we decided to discontinue selling the Armani line and switch to Calvin Klein.
No reason to put money in our competitors pocket.

[Johns]

Marchon does not manufacture frames, that's why I didn't mention them. I think however, they would be a great distributor of Armani.

Calvin Klein or Ralph do great side by side with Armani. Armani would add extra punch to either's company.

[Jedi]

I just talked to my Armani rep today and he (without saying anything) confirmed Prada will be replacing Armani.

[Mikol]

I heard the same with the local Lux reps..............

Happy Turkey Day

Mikol
:cheers:

[John R]

Maybe Armani are just going to drop out of the optical side...

.

[Chris Ryser]

John R said:
Maybe Armani are just going to drop out of the optical side...

.

and starts milk farming. Would be fantastic.........drinkin Armani milk