Luxury group Kering focuses on doubling eyeglass revenues

PARIS (Reuters) -French luxury group Kering aims to increase sales of its eyeglasses division to about 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion)with an earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margin of more than 15% in the medium term, it said Thursday.

The details were in slides shown on the second day of an investor presentation.

European luxury companies have shown increased interest in the eyewear business, tightening their hold on production capacity as demand for luxury products stays strong.

Kering began building an in-house eyewear division in 2014 and wholesale revenues exceeded 700 million euros in 2021. It announced plans in March to buy U.S.-based brand Maui Jim, and bought upscale Danish label Lindberg in July 2021.

Rival LVMH announced plans in December to take over Thelios, the Italian eyewear manufacturer it launched with Marcolin in 2017.

Kering is also due to hold a presentation on its main label and profit engine, Gucci, which accounts for over half of group sales Thursday.

($1 = 0.9349 euros)

(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Edmund Blair)