GrandVision reports preliminary revenue growth at constant exchange rates of 10.3% in FY18 and 4.4% in 4Q18

Revenue growth at constant exchange rates was 10.3% for the full year 2018 with organic growth of 3.9%. Comparable growth accelerated from 1.8% in 2017 to 3.4% in 2018, driven by improvements across all segments. Acquisitions added 6.4% to revenue growth including Visilab in Switzerland and Tesco Opticians in the UK.

In the fourth quarter, revenue growth at constant exchange rates was 4.4%, with organic and comparable growth of 2.1% and 2.9%, respectively. The slowdown in organic growth was due to the higher number of store closings across several markets in the previous year coupled with a lower contribution from new stores and lower franchise revenues. During the quarter, the net number of stores rose by 54 to 7,095.

In the G4 segment, comparable growth was 2.4% in FY18 and 1.7% in 4Q18. France delivered the segment's highest comparable growth rate during the quarter driven by strong sales in October, which were partially reduced by a weaker year-end performance due to the yellow vest protests in November and December. As anticipated, comparable growth slowed down in Germany during the quarter, following the end of the successful commercial campaign in the third quarter but deliverd a strong performance for the full year.

In the Other Europe segment, comparable growth accelerated to 3.9% in the fourth quarter with a strong year-end performance across most markets driven by additional selling days and lower prior year comparables.