BUSINESS: Financial Essilor’s 3Q Revenue Jumps 14.5 Percent By Staff Friday, October 23, 2015 12:23 AM CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France—Essilor International (Reuters: ESSI.PA) announced Thursday that consolidated revenue jumped 14.5 percent year-on-year to €1,62 billion in the third quarter of 2015 ended Sept. 30, 2015. On a like-for-like basis, revenue growth gained further momentum over the period, rising 4.8 percent versus 4.4 percent in the second quarter and 4 percent in the first.Essilor cited several factors for the strong performance, including sustained robust growth in North America and Europe, led by stepped-up consumer marketing campaigns, faster growth in its sunglasses and readers division and the 8.0 percent positive currency effect, mainly from the rise in the U.S. dollar against the euro, plus a 1.7 percent increase from changes in the scope of consolidation.“Around the world, our industry is benefiting from strong, sustainable demand for vision care solutions," said Hubert Sagnieres, chairman and CEO. "In a mixed economic environment, our third-quarter performance has validated our investment strategy, designed to drive balanced growth that is evenly spread among developed and fast-growing economies. The acceleration in organic growth also reflects the benefits of broadening our business portfolio, with the ramp-up of sunwear and online sales. This across-the-board dynamic underpins our confidence that we can meet our full-year targets in 2015 and continue to move boldly forward in 2016."Essilor said sales in North America continued to grow rapidly in a steadily expanding market, rising 4.4 percent like-for-like over the quarter. Third-quarter sales in the U.S. benefited from faster growth in business with the optical chains as well as sustained expansion by the Varilux, Crizal, Transitions and Xperio product lines, supported by the continued deployment of marketing initiatives and media campaigns. In addition, the contact lens distribution business enjoyed another quarter of robust growth.Responding to questions during a conference call yesterday with financial analysts, Sagnieres noted that Essilor is also well positioned within the private optometry sector of the U.S. market, which represents a major market for Essilor’s premium products and is gaining momentum. He said Essilor’s recent acquisition of a majority stake in Vision Source, an alliance of 4,000 U.S. independent optometrists, has been “really strong for us. It’s actually positioning us in the strongest portion of the business.” Although Sagnieres declined to offer details about the Vision Source deal, he said its business model is growing in the “high single digits” and is “a key network to maximize efficiency of all our advertising on key product.”In other third-quarter activity, Essilor also reported that its Frames Direct and EyeBuyDirect online retail operations both delivered strong gains, while Coastal.com continued its turnaround. The company’s sunglasses and readers division posted a 9.9 percent like-for-like increase in sales. The division's solid results were also driven by strong growth at Costa, which is still benefiting from the ramp-up of its prescription sunwear business and accelerating online sales, Essilor said.