Industry News
Inspecs Group Acquires Ego Eyewear
Inspecs Group plc has completed the acquisition of Ego Eyewear Limited. Ego Eyewear is a design and licensing company and uses third party eyewear manufacturers to produce premium fashion brands. Its prestigious design house is based in Stockholm, and it also has operations in London, Osaka and Hong Kong.
Robin Totterman, CEO, Inspecs commented: "We are pleased to bring Ego into the Inspecs Group to further develop our brand portfolio and add to our Scandinavian offering, where we believe there are considerable opportunities for us. We have known Ronald and Johanna for a number of years and watched as they have successfully developed Ego into a significant player in the Nordic region, Japan and the UK. Both parties were able to see the value that Inspecs brings to continued development of global sales. Ego's design studio in Stockholm adds to our existing teams in the UK, Portugal, Hong Kong and New York. We look forward to working with the new members of our Group in 2022."
Ego Eyewear's licensed brands include Barbour, Liberty of London, Viktor & Rolf, Lyle & Scott, Henry Lloyd and Joseph, and Nordic brands Ivana Helsinki, Valerie and Day. Ego Eyewear's main distribution channel is through major optical chains. The company is run by second generation eyewear veterans Ronald and Johanna Gezang, who are known for their innovative and creative designs.
Inspecs Group plc has acquired 100% of Ego Eyewear Limited and its operating subsidiaries in Sweden and Hong Kong for an initial consideration of £6.175m and a deferred consideration partly based on performance over the next 3 years. Ego Eyewear is expected to have revenue of £8.9m for the year to 31 December 2021 (2020: £3.4m), and Inspecs expects the acquisition to be earnings enhancing for 2022.
Inspecs Group plc is a global eyewear company with diverse channel distribution across 70k+ retail outlets in over 80 countries. Operating from 14 sales offices the company has manufacturing bases in Vietnam, China, Italy and UK.