Marcolin’s closure of its French subsidiary Cébé, which took effect at the end of last year, had an immediate effect on its results, which showed a doubling in its profit for the first quarter of 2008. They also had a major effect on the sales of a couple of French competitors in the area of snow goggles and snow helmets, which were taken out of Cébé’s product range for Fall/Winter 2008-09, while keeping its sunglass offerings. Bollé is anticipating a possible doubling in its sell-in for goggles on the French and Italian markets. Its orders for helmets have already quadrupled in the second year that it is offering this type of product. Another French company, Julbo, is predicting triple the former volume for its deliveries of ski goggles on the domestic market, aided by the fact that one of its subcontractors bought five of the molds from Cébé’s collection. For Marcolin, Cébé had become a serious drain on its profits. The Cébé brand itself remains the property of Marcolin, which says that attempts to find a buyer gave disappointing results. Cébé sunglasses and prescription frames will consequently be developed, produced and distributed by Marcolin, which showed them on a wall in its MIDO stand. The discontinued sports goggles represented less than 5 percent of the Italian group’s total sales (more in EyeWear Intelligence).