FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., April 20, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Oakley, Inc. (NYSE:OO) today announced the acquisition of five Optica retail locations through Iacon, Inc., Oakley's wholly owned sunglass specialty subsidiary. These optical stores, which also offer a wide range of high-end premium sunglasses, are located in Southern California, Boston, Las Vegas and Puerto Rico.
"Optica has had great success with these prestigious, high traffic mall locations, making them an attractive complement to Iacon's retail expansion strategy," said Cos Lykos, vice president of business development for Oakley. "Each location we add to Iacon's stable of retail stores strengthens our connection to the core eyewear consumer."
"This addition underscores our goal to selectively acquire premier specialty locations," said Iacon President Jeff Obstfeld. "We intend to use two of these locations to test-market prescription eyewear offerings in high-end optical stores, a new opportunity for expansion of our retail base."
The South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, California) and Boston Prudential Center locations will retain the Optica trade name, which will be licensed to Iacon as part of the acquisition agreement and will serve as Iacon's flagship locations to test-market prescription eyewear offerings. The remaining locations will be converted to sunglass specialty stores under existing Iacon trade names. In Las Vegas, the Fashion Show store will become "Sunglass Designs" and the Las Vegas Outlet Center store will be renamed "Sunglass Club". The Plaza Las Americas location in Puerto Rico will be renamed "Sunglass Designs" and is significant as Iacon's first entry into the international market.
This latest acquisition follows the company's November 2004 purchase of the Shades of California store (now Sunglass Designs) located in the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Specific terms of the Optica acquisition agreement were not disclosed.
About Iacon, Inc.
Iacon's growing chain of mall-based sunglass specialty stores currently operate under six separate retail concepts known as Sunglass Designs, Sporting Eyes, Occhiali da Sole, Oakley Icon, Sunglass Club and Sunglass Icon. With this acquisition, the company operates 90 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico. In addition to its mall-based retail locations, Iacon has a master licensing agreement with HMSHost, the world's leading concessions operator, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, under which HMSHost has licensed Iacon's sunglass retailing branded concepts in nine airport locations operated by HMSHost.
About Oakley, Inc.
Oakley: a world brand, driven to ignite the imagination through the fusion of art and science. Building on its legacy of innovative, market-leading premium sunglasses, the company also offers an expanding line of premium performance apparel and accessories, prescription eyewear, footwear, electronics and watches to consumers in more than 100 countries. Trailing-12-month net sales through December 31, 2004 totaled $585.5 million and generated net income of $41.6 million. Oakley, Inc. press releases, SEC filings and the company's annual report are available at www.oakley.com.
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This press release contains certain statements of a forward-looking nature. Such statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to growth and strategies, future operating and financial results, financial expectations and current business indicators are based upon current information and expectations and are subject to change based on factors beyond the control of the company. Forward-looking statements typically are identified by the use of terms such as "may," "will," "should," "might," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate" and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. The accuracy of such statements may be impacted by a number of business risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated, including: successful operation and integration of acquisition; risks related to the success of Oakley Thump; the company's ability to manage rapid growth; risks related to the limited visibility of future sunglass orders associated with the company's "at once" production and fulfillment business model; the ability to identify qualified manufacturing partners; the ability to coordinate product development and production processes with those partners; the ability of those manufacturing partners and the company's internal production operations to increase production volumes on raw materials and finished goods in a timely fashion in response to increasing demand and enable the company to achieve timely delivery of finished goods to its retail customers; the ability to provide adequate fixturing to existing and future retail customers to meet anticipated needs and schedules; the dependence on eyewear sales to Sunglass Hut, which is owned by a major competitor and, accordingly, could materially alter or terminate its relationship with the company; the company's ability to expand distribution channels and its own retail operations in a timely manner; unanticipated changes in general market conditions or other factors, which may result in cancellations of advance orders or a reduction in the rate of reorders placed by retailers; weakness of economic conditions could reduce demand for products sold by the company and could adversely affect profitability, especially of the company's retail operations; further terrorist acts, or the threat thereof, could continue to adversely affect consumer confidence and spending, could interrupt production and distribution of product and raw materials and could, as a result, adversely affect the company's operations and financial performance; the ability of the company to integrate joint licensing arrangements without adversely affecting operations; the ability to continue to develop and produce innovative new products and introduce them in a timely manner; the acceptance in the marketplace of the company's new products and changes in consumer preferences; reductions in sales of products, either as the result of economic or other conditions or reduced consumer acceptance of a product, could result in a buildup of inventory; the ability to source raw materials and finished products at favorable prices to the company; the potential impact of periodic power crises on the company's operations including temporary blackouts at the company's facilities; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; earthquakes or other natural disasters concentrated in Southern California where substantially all of the companies operations are based; the company's ability to identify and execute successfully cost control initiatives; and other risks outlined in the company's SEC filings, including but not limited to the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 and other filings made periodically by the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The company undertakes no obligation to update this forward-looking information. Nonetheless, the Company reserves the right to make such updates from time to time by press release, periodic report or other method of public disclosure without the need for specific reference to this press release. No such update shall be deemed to indicate that other statements not addressed by such update remain correct or create an obligation to provide any other updates.
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