Safilo seals the sale of Solscite to Fairway and loses Dior’s license after 20 years

After twenty years, Safilo has ended its relationship with Dior. The Italian optics company, immersed in a reorganization of the business, has announced that in December 2020 it will end its license agreement to produce and sell the Dior glasses collections, as well as its line of Dior Homme lenses. In parallel, the group has closed the sale of Solscite glasses to the American fund Fairway for nine million dollars (eight million euros).

Under Dior’s license, the company has sold more than 30 million pieces representing 13% of its total sales in 2018 fiscal year, according to a company’s press release. The company closed last fiscal year with a turnover of 962.8 million euros, 7% less than in 2017. The company recorded losses of 32.4 million euros in that period.

“We remain fully committed to our 2020 group business plan, aiming to reignite sales growth focusing on key geographies, brands and channels while recovering operating performance enabled by our cost reduction program”, said chief executive officer, Angelo Trocchia.

About 13% of Safilo’s sales camen from the Dior glasses license in 2018

“We are on track with our goals and will further accelerate our journey towards restoring an adequate and sustainable level of profitability by 2020 which will enable us to effectively manage this license exit,” added the general manager. The company will communicate a new group business plan by the end of 2019.

On the other hand, Safilo has definitely removed Solscite glasses from its portfolio. The agreement with Fairway establishes that the Italian company will continue to supply Solstice with products from the Italian company for several years. Safilo acquired the company in 2002 and since then it has expanded the store network in 76 stores.