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Italian Eyewear Company Buys Smith Sport Optics |
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| Smith Sport Optics, the Sun Valley, Idaho based makers of Smith snowboard
goggles and glasses recently sold a majority interest in their company to
the Safilo Group, an Italian eyewear design and manufacturing company.
Smith will remain in Sun Valley with key managers retaining their management positions in the company, according the Leah Butler, advertising and promotion manager at Smith. "It's going to be better for us because we'll have design and manufacturing opportunities," she said. "On the sunglasses side we've operated just like our competitors, now we'll have our own deal."
In addition to gaining manufacturing and design for it's new sunglass lines, Smith will assume sports distribution for several Safilo products, including Diesel Shades which the company says was the fastest growing sunglass line in the world in 1995.
Based in Padova, Italy the Safilo Group also has licensing agreements with Diesel, Polo Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and Laura Biagotti and an annual 1995 revenue of approximately $300 million. Smith had an annual revenue around $30 million for 1995.
Smith Sport Optics, Inc. P.O. Box 2999 Ketchum, ID 83340 (208) 726-4477 (208) 726-9584 |
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