PADOVA, Italy— As it reported its financial results for the third quarter and first nine months of fiscal 2016, Safilo Group (SFLG.MI) announced on Nov. 9 that its board of directors had approved a reorganization of Safilo’s corporate structure.

The objective of the reorganization is “to drive consistency between the Group’s global business model and its legal entity structure, thereby guaranteeing a close alignment with the choices of the Group’s 2020 Strategic Plan. As a result of this intervention, the Group’s business units will each be focused on, and be accountable for specific, unique business activities, organized as follows:

• Safilo Group S.p.A as the holding company, which will host the corporate functions that provide corporate
services to the entire Group;
• Safilo S.p.A. will be affirming its role as the strategic company, which leads the global business, with global
brand management, product design and creation, sourcing, quality assurance, sales operations and delivery, and logistics;
• Safilo Industrial S.r.l., a newly created entity, wholly controlled, by Safilo S.p.A, will be the Italian manufacturing company that comprises Safilo's Italian plants of Santa Maria di Sala, Martignacco, and Longarone, along with the related employees. Safilo Industrial will thus operate within the Group’s global industrial footprint, alongside the other manufacturing plants in China, Slovenia, and the USA.

A company statement said, “This new corporate setup has the purpose to crystallize more efficiently unique deliverables and responsibilities among the business activities performed across the Group, and will enable a more immediate reading of the performance of the different business units. The transfer of the employees involved will occur at current terms, maintaining the legal, economic and social conditions for all employees. Implementation is planned for January 2017 via two one-off transactions: a transfer of going concern from Safilo S.p.A. to Safilo Group S.p.A., and a contribution in kind of going concern by Safilo S.p.A. into Safilo Industrial S.r.l..

This transformation of the corporate structure takes place within a broader, ongoing overall legal entity simplification. In that context, the company noted, the Group will end the current year with 49 legal entities vs. 52 at the end of 2015, contributing to cost savings and efficiencies.