MONTREAL—New Look Vision Group Inc. (TSX: BCI) reported this week that its first-quarter revenue totaled $69.8 million and adjusted EBITDA reached $11.3 million, representing increases of 36.7 percent and 44.1 percent, respectively, compared with year-ago results. New Look Vision, based here, is a leader in the Canadian retail optical business with 376 stores across Canada. Its 13-week first quarter ended March 31. In its earnings announcement, New Look said the revenue increase was “mainly due to a full quarter of ownership of Iris and comparable-stores sales growth of 1.8 percent over last year. This revenue growth, along with improvement in the materials consumed ratio, resulted in the strong adjusted EBITDA performance.”

New Look agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of Iris Le Group Visuel (1990), Inc. in July 2017, as VMAIL reported. Iris operated a 150-store network at the time.

In the first quarter, net earnings attributed to shareholders increased to $2.2 million, compared with $1.3 million last year, with the increase being mainly due to a higher EBITDA, offset by depreciation, financial expenses and income taxes, according to New Look’s announcement.

New Look president and chief executive officer Antoine Amiel said the “year is off to a strong start with solid Q1 results for the Group as a whole, primarily due to the inclusion of Iris and other acquisitions made in 2017.” He also noted that the company achieved its 15th consecutive quarter of comparable-store sales growth. “As we carry out our strategic growth plan, we continue to generate cost synergies as highlighted by our decreasing operating expense ratio,” he said in the earnings announcement. “We maintain our focus on the integration of recent acquisitions and strengthening our position in the consolidating Canadian retail optical industry."

In terms of first-quarter results, New Look reported that its adjusted EBITDA increased 90 basis points to 16.3 percent of sales. Depreciation and amortization expenses increased principally as a result of the acquisition of Iris and capital investments made on the company’s stores and laboratories, the announcement noted.