Fewer corona restrictions in many countries and the takeover of the Dutch optician Grandvision drove the glasses company EssilorLuxottica at the start of the year. According to a statement on Friday, the group increased sales in the first quarter by 38 percent year-on-year to 5.6 billion euros. On a comparable basis, this results in an increase of 15.7 percent. It is being pretended that Grandvision, which has been fully consolidated since July and to which the German chain Apollo belongs, had already contributed to sales in the same period last year. Excluding the consequences of exchange rate changes, it was an increase of 11.5 percent. No information was given about the profit.
However, Essilor with brands like Ray-Ban also benefited from better-performing business in areas that had suffered particularly from corona restrictions, such as the business with high-priced products at airports and with sunglasses. (dpa)