According to a French news website, Oakley Europe will move out of France soon. Two sites are concerned as well as 144 employes.
So Oakley Europe Headquarter who used to be palced at Clichy (near Paris), will move to Zurich (Switzerland) and the Product stock of Goussainville will simply be closed.
Oakley offices in Italia, France and Deutschland are both concerned, the number of employes here will be reduced in the current year 2008...

I'm feeling blunt now !

C'est la fin des haricots...-_-

Full article here : http://www.acuite.fr/articles.asp?REF=4480

That's no good.

It's amazing...I was fluent in French until I hit college...and beer cleared the second language out. But, I still could get the general idea of the article.

SO...pardon my ignorance, but are there many OPD's in France?

Thanks for drawing the attention on this article Francois.

Apparently the Swiss office will be distributing the sport and active lifestyle models while the distribution of the ophthalmic models will be transfered to Luxottica.
I think they were very honest in this press release by admitting that Oakley hasn't be doing that well in Europe.
This is mostly due to the different distribution model that exist in Europe (mainly through independent ophthomologists). Oakley has commented before (in one of their investor reports) on their difficulties in breaking into this market. Luxottica has a great established distribution network in Europe, so commercially it all makes sense. In the end it should mean we get to start seeing more Oakley (Rx) models in European eyewear shops. What it will mean for the sports models though, I'm not sure. I don't see what moving from France to Switzerland will accomplish.
Anyway it must hurt for people currently working for Oakley Europe, although the article promises they will be offered new jobs.

OPD's yes in the quite big towns (France scale)
O-store, None since a few month
Vault, One

Thanks for the abstract Iwan

The sunglasses hut store in Warsaw has finally sold the only pair of Oakleys it ever stocked (a pair of Bottlecap) and the shop in another mall which specialises in ladies ski wear has removed their Oakley display case (and the f*ckers wouldn't tell me what they'd done with it either) so I now know of nowhere in Poland which stocks Oakley glasses. A few places have lenses but no glasses (other than from a single website which takes so long to deliver that I'm sure they just ship from Germany).

So basically things can not get any worse in Poland!

I can appreciate what it's like for you Harry.. things are very bleak indeed when you have to travel abroad to get to the nearest O-store.

Real shame about the one's in France too.. surprising they couldn't justify keeping those afloat.

Hey Harry, I heard there's a pretty cool store in a new mall in Poland, I think close to Poznan...ever heard of it?

what a shame, i was there 1 year ago b4 the O store was closed as well..

Hi o-believer. I was actually in Poznan over last weekend, just got back yesterday. Didn't see any o-stores. Got any more details?

Hi Harry,

it's not a "real" O Store, but a store called Butik 1242, and they carry mostly Oakley. It's located in a quite big and new mall, as far as I know it's in Poznan or around it. Check their site for further info:

http://www.1242.eu/index2.php

Perhaps 1242 is Oakleys reapproach at that market? i keep thinking about 1242 productions, maybe they are trying to not market it as oakley itself, just an opd?

Ehrm...Poznan isn't in France! :-)

The site looks very Oakley to me, with even some quotes by JJ and Colin.

Poznan isn't in France! :-)

It might be one day! After all, the city spent more than a few hundred years in Germany....