The eyewear company EssilorLuxottica worked its way out of the Corona crisis last year. Sales and profits not only rose sharply compared to the first Corona year 2020, but were also above the values of 2019. Including its new subsidiary Grandvision, the group turned over 21.5 billion euros for the year as a whole – 2.5 percent more than 2019. Adjusted for the consequences of currency conversions, the increase was more than seven percent. The figures include all of the Dutch optician Grandvision, which was only taken over in the middle of the year, to which the German chain Apollo belongs, for example.
The operating result was almost 3.5 billion euros – almost half a billion of which came from Grandvision. In 2019, before the corona pandemic and the Grandvision takeover, operating profit was 2.8 billion euros. Business developed particularly strongly in the last quarter of 2021. With brands such as Ray-Ban, Burberry and Ralph Lauren, the company exceeded its forecast for the adjusted operating margin, which it only raised in autumn. This should continue to rise in the coming years – from around 16 percent most recently to 19 to 20 percent in 2026. Annual sales are expected to increase in the mid-single-digit percentage range.
The shareholders are to receive a dividend of EUR 2.51 per share. The news was received positively on the stock exchange. The stock gained more than 3 percent this morning. Since the end of 2019, the price has risen by around ten percent. This made the paper one of the winners in the euro zone selection index in recent years. With a market value of more than 67 billion euros, the group is in the middle of the EuroStoxx 50 in this ranking. The group was formed at the end of 2018 from the merger of the companies Essilor from France and Luxottica from Italy. (dpa)