GrandVision lowers 2003 profit objective

The business reported that excluding 50 joint venture franchise stores, Vision Express contributed sales of E48m (£34m) from 106 branches during the three months to the end of September, a fall of 14 per cent compared to last time's E56m.
Vision Express, which is currently being run by a new management team following the departure of managing director Simon Innes (News, October 3) suffered from a 9 per cent year-on-year decrease of the pound against the euro, a GrandVision spokesman said. This added to negative sales of 5.6 per cent for comparable stores in the third quarter, due to 'lower store traffic'.
Daniel Abittan, GrandVision chief executive officer, said: 'We now expect our operating profit for 2003 to be below our initial objective of 9.5 per cent, but still ahead of last year.'