D&A hailed as star performer by parent

Dollond & Aitchison continued to improve its finances in the first half of this year, Italian parent De Rigo has revealed.

The Birmingham-based multiple made large strides in its profitability and is fighting back after the business made all 90 of its contact lens opticians redundant in July.

Although D&A had weaker sales in the six months to June 30, it posted a significant improvement in earnings as gross margin. The increase came about as a result of D&A staff selling an improved mix of products, and maintaining that performance as operating expenses fell.  

'Its income before depreciation and amortisation increased by 56.6 per cent to €8m from the €5.1m posted in the first six months of 2004,' said a De Rigo spokesman.

Income for the first half rose a whopping 375 per cent, from €0.8m (2004) to €3.8m in the six months reported.

De Rigo attributed its retail portfolio's improvement directly to D&A, though sales dropped, from €127.3m in the first half of 2004 to €120.5m in the six months to June 30 this year.

The Italian giant reported that its wholesale and manufacturing sales in the first six months of 2005 continued to be impacted by the expiry of the Group's licence agreement with Fendi as of the end of 2004. Its management expects that the negative impact on the segment's sales of the expiry of the Fendi licence will eventually be more than offset by increased sales under the new licence agreements De Rigo signed with Chopard, Ermenegildo Zegna, Escada and Jean Paul Gaultier during the last quarter of 2004 and first quarter of 2005.