Safilo: approval of first quarter 2014 figures

Increased profits and margins The Board of Directors of Safilo Group S.p.A. today examined and approved the results of the first quarter of 2014.   During the first three months of the year, Safilo had a 1.9% increase in sales at constant exchange rates and a very significant improvement in margins and profits with an almost 23% increase in the Group's net result. These financial results enabled the Group to record leverage of 1.7.   Safilo Group CEO Luisa Delgado commented: "The results of the first quarter 2014 are consistent with the medium-long term strategic action by which we decided to govern our business and on the basis of which we are now establishing our operating choices. We are aiming at the sustainable and profitable growth of our business. The objective is to create avant-garde eyewear, strengthen the quality of distribution throughout the world so as to highlight the specific nature of each brand, and collaborate with our customers through accurate and shared planning. During the quarter this allowed us to consolidate our commercial positions in the various markets and main distribution channels while also improving the economic and financial components of the business. In the three months we gradually introduced Fendi to key markets worldwide and launched the first Bobbi Brown eyewear collection in the United States and Canada. On the basis of the market's first positive reactions, these two new business areas promise a satisfactory first year and the potential for sustainable growth and quality. With regard to the brands owned by Safilo, Polaroid has constantly improved on consolidated as well as new markets. We are especially pleased about the excellent results we have achieved concerning the gross industrial result, with margins close to 63%, and about moving forward from an operating aspect, despite increased investments in brand building projects for our proprietary brands and programs dedicated to improving company processes and the relevant information systems. In March we celebrated Safilo's 80th anniversary confident that 2014 will be a milestone on which we can build our Group's story for the next eighty years".