CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France— Essilor International (Reuters: ESSI.PA) announced Friday that consolidated revenue for the third quarter of 2014, ending Sept. 30, climbed to €1,415 million, an increase of 14.5 percent, excluding the currency effect, over third quarter 2013.

“Everywhere in the world, the eyecare market continues to enjoy strong demand for visual health,” said Hubert Sagnieres, chairman and CEO of Essilor. “The third-quarter performance attests to the ability of our teams and strengthened management organization to carry out Essilor’s mission and execute a clear strategy aimed at increasing market share in all of its businesses, i.e. ophthalmic lenses, sun lenses and online sales. The dynamic we set in motion is really paying off and allowing us to approach the end of the year, as well as 2015, with confidence.”

Essilor said third-quarter revenue was driven by an acceleration in its lenses and optical instruments division. Like-for-like growth of 3.9 percent was led by the lenses and optical instruments division, which saw a 5.5 percent like-for-like revenue increase. Essilor attributed the growth to a variety of factors, including “vigorous sales of value-added products, including the Crizal, Varilux, Transitions and Xperio lenses; the positive impact of consumer marketing campaigns, an excellent performance in the U.S. and Canada; 11.2 percent like-for-like growth in fast-growing countries, which account for about 22 percent of consolidated sales.”

Newly acquired companies increased Essilor’s reported revenue for the period by 10.6 percent, which reflected the 3.8 percent positive impact of bolt-on acquisitions, primarily due to strong growth achieved by sunlens businesses Xiamen Yarui Optical (Bolon) in China and Costa Inc. in the U.S., and the 6.7 percent positive impact of strategic acquisitions such as Coastal.com and Transitions Optical.

Essilor reported that sales in North America rose 7.1 percent on a like-for-like basis, aided by a consumer communication strategy in the U.S. to support growth in sales of its flagship brands Varilux, Crizal, Transitions and Xperio among independent optometrists and speed the deployment of high value-added progressive, anti-reflective, photochromic and polarized lenses. Growth was also lifted by managed care organizations and large optical chains, the healthy performance of retail operations and the uptick in online sales from Frames Direct and EyeBuyDirect, Essilor noted.

Despite gains by Costa and Xiamen Yarui Optical, Essilor said sales for its sunglasses and readers division fell 10.5 percent like-for-like. Essilor attributed the decline to inventory drawdown policies at its FGX division in the North American market. Essilor said FGX has introduced a series of new measures to revitalize its sales.

Essilor said sales for its equipment division fell 10.1 percent like-for-like, due to an unfavorable basis of comparison and by a weak backlog at the beginning of the quarter that reflected the slowdown in demand for digital surfacing machines, particularly in the U.S. and Europe.