Latest Headlines
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ArticleiVision Tech sees eyewear sales steadying as looks to smart glasses for growth
iVision Tech expects eyewear sales to steady this year after declining in 2025, when difficulties facing luxury goods companies had a knock-on effect on the sector, said Stefano Fulchir, CEO of the company. As 2026 gets underway, iVision Tech has seen a decline in eyewear sales volumes but is producing ...
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ArticleKRYS GROUP grows market share, launches own smart eyewear brand
KRYS GROUP has reported a 4.9 percent year‑on‑year increase in optical sales to €1,457 million (including VAT) for 2025. The company stressed that it has thus consolidated its leadership position in France, lifting its market share to a record high 18.8 percent (see table). It calculates that the French optical ...
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ArticleZeiss acquires Vivior’s assets
Zeiss Vision Care has acquired “key assets” of Vivior AG, the Swiss developer of a device whose data stream helps recommend or customize lenses and other products. Source: Vivior/Businesswire Image of Vivior’s VBM that accompanied a company press release form 2018. Called the Vision Behaviour Monitor (VBM), ...
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ArticleConant Optical reports higher margins, XR plans progress
Conant Optical’s revenue increased by 5.6 percent year on year to RMB 2,186.0 million (€275.1m) in FY 2025, expanding at a slower pace in the second half compared with the 11.0 percent growth in the first half. Geographically, all key markets reported sales increases except the Other Asias segment, where ...
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ArticleRay-Ban Meta Optics expected to widen consumer adoption, protect Essilux margins
Meta and EssilorLuxottica have officially announced two new Ray‑Ban Meta AI glasses, just days after FCC filings sparked media speculation, including in our publication. Called Ray‑Ban Meta Blayzer Optics (Gen 2) and Scriber Optics (Gen 2), the new products are described in the partners’ press release as “optical‑first styles designed ...
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ArticleNew Essilux-Meta glasses on the way, FCC filings suggest
The grantee known to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as 2AYOA, and to us as Luxottica Group, has filed documents pertaining to what appear to be two new models of Ray-Ban smart glasses – as reported first by Janko Roettgers’ Lowpass newsletter and then by Road to VR and ...
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ArticleMade in Italy and inspired by Africa, L.G.R. looks to increase its global footprint
The Italian eyewear brand L.G.R. traces its roots back to Eritrea, where the grandfather of its founder Luca Gnecchi Ruscone lived for decades and imported photographic equipment and eyewear for the local market. Since Ruscone set up the brand in 2008, L.G.R. has gained a name among celebrities and royalty ...
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ArticleMeta reportedly renouncing the launch of its AR glasses in the EU, for now
Meta is, for now, renouncing the launch of its Meta Ray‑Ban Display AR glasses in the European Union (EU), according to an anonymous source “with knowledge of the situation” quoted in a Bloomberg article last week. In January, Meta officially announced a pause in the rollout of the product outside ...
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ArticleMister Spex turnaround plan yields higher margins but break-even still distant
Quality over quantity, offline over online, premium prescription eyewear over sunglasses and Germany over international markets; the shift in priorities introduced in the summer of 2024 by the new management team has started to pay off in 2025 with significant margin improvements, Mister Spex stressed in its full-year financial results ...
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ArticleAFFLELOU slows down in Q2
AFFLELOU GROUP network sales increased by 2.5 percent to €244.9 million in Q2 FY2026, decelerating from the 5 percent growth reported for the first quarter and for FY2024. All markets, France, Spain and Other Countries saw their growth pace roughly halved quarter on quarter. The franchisor group ended ...
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ArticleAI startup takes aim at eyewear e-tail shortcomings
Eyvero.AI, a Balkans-based IT startup, is launching several AI-powered tools, covering areas such as virtual try-on, or rather “anatomic immersion” as the company puts it, progressive lens fitting analysis, and the creation of digital frame images and marketing materials. Eyvero.AI was founded by Artem Yukhnovskiy and Vladimir Meniailenko, two ...
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ArticleNew white paper looks industry sustainability issues in the eye
Frame the Future, a newly established non-profit sustainability organization, is launching its activities by publishing The Catalyst Study, a 38-page white paper examining the structural barriers that hinder sustainability progress in the eyewear industry. The challenge, they argue, is more structural than technical. The report draws primarily on 19 in-depth ...
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ArticleVSP Vision announces Innovation Challenge winners and finalists
The VSP Vision Innovation Challenge at this year’s Vision Expo – organized by RX and The Vision Council in collaboration with VSP Vision – has yielded two winners and two finalists, all start-ups. They not only pitched live but also exhibited at Vision Expo’s new Innovation Center, a showcase for ...
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ArticleLeading electronics ODM and Ray-Ban Meta supplier to form lens JV with Asahi Lite
Goertek Optical, a subsidiary of Goertek, a leading Chinese original design manufacturer and components supplier for smart hardware, is about to form a joint venture with Asahi Lite, as we have just learned. The announcement was made a few weeks ago by Conant Optical, the Chinese-based lens manufacturer that fully ...
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ArticleNIDEK modernizes refraction with lens-free, open-field system
In daily life, people naturally have an open-field vision environment with their two eyes open, so shouldn’t it be the same when they have their visual acuity checked? The answer to that question lies at the heart of PHANTOM, NIDEK’s new refraction system, with which the company is aiming to ...
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ArticleCECOP celebrates 30th anniversary with 7% growth in 2025
Spanish-based optical buying group CECOP celebrated its 30th anniversary on Feb. 28 and March 1 during its annual EXPOCECOP event, where it brought together 170 of its 6,000 members. The company operates in 6 countries with at least 1,000 members in all markets but Italy and Portugal (see table). ...
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ArticleJEH maintains top level margins despite 'inbound' business slowdown in Q4
Japanese Eyewear Holdings (JEH) revenue increased by 14.2 percent year-on-year to 5.2 billion Japanese yen (€29m) in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026/1, ended Jan. 31. The momentum was driven by Kaneko Optical (+20.0 percent), the group’s main retail banner, while growth was more subdued at 999.9 (4.1 percent). “Inbound” ...
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ArticleVuzix books modest revenue recovery as cash reserves dwindle
Smart-glasses and waveguides manufacturer Vuzix has reported a 9 percent rise in full-year revenue to $6.3 million for 2025 – an apparent stabilization after the drop from 2023 to 2024 of $12.1 to $5.7 million. That more-than-halving resulted largely from unrenewed orders (for Vuzix’s M400 smart glasses) from two major ...
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ArticleSafilo comments FY 2025 solid performance, M&A targets
Confirming preliminary results released at the end of January, Safilo Group announced yesterday that its Q4 revenue declined by 4.6 percent to €225 million. At constant exchange rates, the topline inched up by 0.4 percent, with both North America and Europe growing at a low single-digit margin rate (see table). ...
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ArticleVeneVision looks to launch new eyewear brands, scouting for opportunities
VeneVision is looking to increase the weight of its own brands in its sales mix as it moves to further expand its offering across the supply chain, Nicola Belli, CEO of the Italian eyewear manufacturer, told Eyewear Intelligence in a recent interview. In-house brands are considered VeneVision’s “strategic asset for ...
