PADUA, Italy—The board of directors of Safilo Group S.p.A. (SFLG.MI) has approved the results of the first quarter of 2015, ended March 31. At the same meeting, the board also appointed its new board of directors.

In the first quarter of 2015, Safilo Group’s total revenues were €324.3 million, up 10.6 percent compared to €293.2 million recorded in the same quarter of 2014, benefitting from the strength of the dollar, the company said. The group’s adjusted net profit equaled €2.3 million compared to €16.5 million recorded in Q1 2014, a decline of 86.3 percent. These results do not include non-recurring items related to commercial restructuring costs in the EMEA region for €1.2 million.

“This has been another quarter of investment, on track with our plans for the year,” said Luisa Delgado, CEO of Safilo Group. “As we progress further with the commercial reinvention to enable worldwide quality sales growth, and the supply network reinvention to enhance gross margins and reducing the level of cash tied up in inventory, we plan to see increasing benefit as we move through 2015.”

In the North American market, Q1 2015 sales rose 26.9 percent, reaching €132.9 million compared to €104.7 million in Q1 2014. According to the company, “core channels and brands were very solid in the period thanks to a broadly positive marketplace and Safilo’s progressive higher commercial differentiation by channel and customer, which helped increase door productivity, particularly in the main department stores, which were top performers in the quarter.”

At the end of March 2015, the group’s net debt stood at €128.3 million, an improvement of 38.2 percent compared to €207.5 million at the end of March 2014 and 21.4 percent compared to €163.3 million at the end of December 2014.

During the same meeting, the Q1 financial results were approved and new board of directors members were also approved. Chosen from a lists of candidates presented by the shareholders, the new board of directors will hold office until the approval of the financial statements Dec. 31, 2017. The new board, confirmed in its composition of eight members, includes Robert Polet of Multibrands Italy B.V. (a company controlled by HAL Holding N.V.) as chairman of the board of directors. The remaining board members are Luisa Deplazes de Andrade Delgado, Jeffrey A. Cole, Melchert F. Groot, Marco Jesi, Eugenio Razelli, Ines Mazzilli and Guido Guzzetti.

The board of directors thanked Giovanni Ciserani and Massimiliano Tabacchi for their contributions during their tenures as members of the board.