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SCHIPHOL, the Netherlands—GrandVision N.V. (Euronext: GVNV) reported Friday that its revenue grew by 2.3 percent at constant exchange rates to €1,047 million in the third quarter as the company’s store network fully reopened. The comparable revenue growth was 0.8 percent in the quarter, led by a strong performance in the G4 (Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan) of 3.4 percent. GrandVision also said Q3 was notable for improved profitability in some “historically underperforming markets such as the U.K., U.S. and Italy. In all these markets we have made good progress, which has led to a solid EBITA performance in the quarter,” the announcement noted.

In addition, the company said it wanted to “reiterate” its continued support of EssilorLuxottica in the latter’s bid to obtain the remaining regulatory approvals for the proposed acquisition of GrandVision via the purchase of HAL Holding NV's stake in the retailer. The proposed deal has been bogged down by a dispute over EssilorLuxottica’s access to certain operational data for GrandVision, as VMAIL reported. 

GrandVision said its "banner e-commerce sales" increased 225 percent during the first nine months of the fiscal year, also.

GrandVision reported third-quarter adjusted EBITA (i.e. excluding non-recurring items) increased 35.2 percent to €176 million from €132 million in the third quarter of 2019 at constant exchange rates. The adjusted EBITA includes a positive one-time effect of €10 million from COVID-19 related measures.

“The third quarter of 2020 was characterized by a faster than expected recovery of our business, as we delivered revenue growth and very strong adjusted EBITA on the back of higher customer conversion across a broad range of our markets, stronger omni-channel sales and efficiency gains,” chief executive officer Stephan Borchert said in the announcement.

He added, “We continued to invest in our omni-channel initiatives, for example by launching prescription glass e-commerce in more than 10 countries, enabling us to cater for the strongly increasing customer demand particularly for single vision glasses to buy spectacles online within the trusted environment of our banners. During the first nine months, e-commerce sales through our banner websites grew by 225 percent, and our online pure-plays grew by 40 percent.”

Within the company’s America and Asia business segment, operations continued to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the third quarter. Revenue in the segment decreased by 6.3 percent at constant exchange rates to €101 million, with a comparable revenue decline of 6.2 percent.

“While Turkey and Russia achieved positive revenue and comparable growth during the third quarter, most markets in Latin America and United States were still negative as lockdown measures or COVID-19 related sales restrictions were only eased toward the latter part of the quarter,” the announcement noted.

However, in this segment, adjusted EBITA increased from €8 million in 3Q19 to €12 million in 3Q20, mainly reflecting operational improvements in the U.S., which returned to profitability in the quarter, and the business recovery in Turkey, according to the announcement.

At the end of September, more than 99 percent of GrandVision’s stores had reopened, an improvement from approximately 90 percent of the store network at the end of June. By the end of July, GrandVision's store networks in most European markets and the US had re-opened. The strongest recovery in the quarter was therefore seen in the G4 and partly in the other Europe segment.

“In many of our Latin American markets, lockdown measures were only eased in August, resulting in a weaker performance for the Americas and Asia segment. Nevertheless, we have also seen strong signs of recovery in Russia, Turkey and the United States,” the announcement said.

Although customer traffic remains below previous levels, it has been more than compensated by higher customer conversion in stores, which is partly driven by an increase of online appointment bookings and a higher purchase intent by customers.

Borchert also said that GrandVision’s strong performance “reconfirms the resilience of the optical retailing industry in general with its favorable long-term market drivers, the strength of our local banners and the effectiveness of our investments in our strategic initiatives, which are allowing us to expand our customer value proposition across all channels and to leverage our global presence.”

GrandVision's net debt position as of Sept. 30 was €602 million, a reduction of €151 million compared 
to the end of June 2020. The store base decreased to 7,247 stores from 7,271 at the end of June 2020 driven by store closures in the ordinary course of business and openings of 45 new stores, the announcement noted.

GrandVision also noted that it intends to pay the postponed 2019 dividend contingent upon developments relating to COVID-19.