All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 26 No. 19+20
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PDF NewsletterEyewear Intelligence: Vol 26 - No 19+20
Italian H1 eyewear down 4% as Europe, China and others partially offset US collapse | Giorgio Armani leaves instructions for the sale of his group | Eyewear stock prices up 11% in Q3 | Essilux becomes Nikon’s largest shareholder, gets up-to-20% greenlight | Meta introduces three products, hints at return to another | Amazon to join the AR glasses fray | Fielmann details 2030 strategic plan at Capital Markets Day | ZEISS Vision Care invests in Fielmann-owned teleophthalmology platform | 1.2m subscribers and 90 new stores among Synsam Group’s midterm targets update | Specsavers’ operating margin stable at around 8% | Hakim Group increased door count by over 30% in 2024 | Capital increase to enable Multiópticas to expand | Kering Eyewear and Valentino sign eyewear license as parent companies reframe acquisition deal | Silmo Paris doubles down on technology | Silmo Futurology round-up – Part one | Silmo Futurology round-up – Part two | Silmo d’Or awards remitted at the show | IXI ramps up autofocus glasses supply chain | Team in Taiwan claims breakthrough in autofocals | Topcon Healthcare steps into mental health diagnosis with new investment | iVision Tech steps up smart glass rollout | Inspecs posts weak H1 results, appoints new non-executive Chair | Japan’s top retailer builds ‘open factory’ to tackle procurement issues and ‘transmit the joy of craftsmanship’ | JEH slows down as inbound tourists’ buying spree subsides | JINS strong momentum driven by price mix effects, network expansion | NPO GoodVision has sold 1m low-priced glasses to people in need, building up local supply chains along the way
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ArticleSilmo Futurology round-up – Part two
Here is the second part of our review of Futurology and neaby booths at Silmo Paris 2025. Read the first part here.
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ArticleJINS strong momentum driven by price mix effects, network expansion
JINS Holdings’ sales in the fourth quarter of its 2025 fiscal year ended Aug. 31 increased by 15.0 percent year on year to 27.4 billion Japanese yen (€155m), slightly decelerating from the 18.0 percent growth reported for the first nine months of the year. For the full year, ...
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News briefsMeta expands its own retail network
Meta is turning its pop-up in Los Angeles, the now-closed Meta Lab, into a 20,000-square-foot flagship, according to RoadToVR, Social Media Today and others. The company is also opening pop-ups in New York and Las Vegas, all in time for Christmas. The flagship, on Melrose Avenue, is set to open ...
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News briefs
Design Eyewear Group acquires six brands from French company KNCO
Design Eyewear Group has acquired six brands from French eyewear company KNCO, marking its entry into children’s eyewear and doubling its portfolio to 20 brands in recent months.
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ArticleSpecsavers’ operating margin stable at around 8%
Specsavers revenue rose by 6.5 percent year on year to £3,985 million (€4,577) for the fiscal year ended Feb. 28, 2025, driven by the the group’s UK business, according to official filings by Specsavers Optical Superstores. This topline figure is slightly below the £4,180 million (€4,801m) communicated by the company ...
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ArticleHakim Group increased door count by over 30% in 2024
Hakim Group, the largest player in the independent optical retail channel in the UK and Ireland, accelerated its network expansion in 2024 with the acquisition of 65 companies for a total of 121 practices versus 75 in the previous year. The acceleration in 2024 was partly driven by the capital ...
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News briefs
Report highlights generational gap in contact lens perception
Younger generations seem to be more interested in technical advancements in contact lenses, according to a survey of 1,308 US and Canadian people with correction needs that was commissioned by the Contact Lens Institute (CLI), the US contact lens industry association. Asked about eight types of contact lens ...
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News briefs
New Chairman at Spectaris
Spectaris, the German industry association for optics and related sectors, has announced the election of André Shulte, CEO of Weinmann Emergency Medical Technology, as its new Chairman. He succeeds Dr. Bernhard Ohnesorge, whose term has ended after two years. Maik Müller, CEO of Nynomix, was elected as the new Deputy ...
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ArticleSilmo Futurology round-up – Part one
Silmo Paris, held on Sept. 25-28, once again had its Silmo Next: Futurology & Tech Village, this time with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI). Stopping by for a chat with several brands and producers of smart glasses, we noticed what seems to be an emerging predilection for voice command. ...
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News briefs
Lenskart’s IPO gets approval from India’s financial watch dog
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the country’s financial watch dog has approved Lenskart’s initial public offering (IPO), The Economic Times and other Indian business news outlets have reported. The retail group is now reportedly targeting to go public around mid-November. The company is aiming to raise 2,150 ...
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News briefs
Apple reportedly shifting priorities from headsets to smart glasses
Apple has put the development of a new version of its Vision Pro headset on the back burner to prioritize its AI glasses projects, according to Bloomberg and other sources. The priority shift includes the reassignment of Vision Pro staff to AI glasses development, according to the group’s internal communications. ...
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ArticleiVision Tech steps up smart glass rollout
Italian eyewear supplier iVision Tech announced plans to step up the rollout of smart glasses in the fourth quarter with the launch of sales of both HJ Tech brand and white-label smart glasses, which mostly incorporate audio functionalities, and to expand distribution and marketing efforts for its iSee smart glasses ...
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ArticleEssilux becomes Nikon’s largest shareholder, gets up-to-20% greenlight
Nikon Corporation officially announced today that EssilorLuxottica has become its largest shareholder with a 10.75 percent stake as of Oct. 1, 2025, up from 9.68 percent on Sept. 10. The eyewear industry behemoth has been progressively building up its stake in the Japanese group in recent months, rising from the ...
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ArticleEyewear stock prices up 11 percent in Q3
The share price of stock listed eyewear companies rose by 11 percent quarter on quarter and on a non-weighted average basis in Q2 2025, outperforming an average of five international stock exchange indexes (see table below). Their growth in Q3 was almost identical to the turbulent previous quarter (10 percent) ...
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News briefs
Silmo Paris attendance up 7%
SILMO Paris organizers have announced that 33,358 eyewear industry professionals visited the 2025 edition of the show, which took place from Sept. 26 to 29, representing a 6.5 percent year-on-year increase. Sligthly more than half (52 percent) of visitors came from outside France, meeting over 900 companies at the 75,000 ...
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News briefs
Nexeye appoints Head of Expansion for Austria
Nexeye has appointed Luzia Ludwig as its Head of Expansion, Austria, in support of its objective to increase the number of its eyes + more stores in the country from 11 to 40 within the next three years. Ludwig, a former management consultant, has worked for Pearle Austria earlier in ...
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News briefs
Fukui Optical Association calls industry to unite under new trade show
The Fukui Optical Association and RX (formerly Redd Exhibitions), co-organizers of the IOFT eyewear trade show, are parting ways after the 38th and last edition of the show, held from Oct. 1 to 3 in Tokyo. In recent years, the eyewear exhibition was increasingly diluted in a larger fashion show ...
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ArticleZEISS Vision Care invests in Fielmann-owned teleophthalmology platform
ZEISS Vision Care is taking a 10 percent stake in Ocumeda, the tele-ophthalmology platform owned by Fielmann Group, with plans to acquire up to a 25 percent stake, the company has announced. The transaction values Ocumeda at €100 million. Founded in 2019 and led by a team of ophthalmologists, Ocumeda ...
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ArticleSilmo d’Or awards remitted at the show
Silmo Paris organizers have yet to issue their final report on the 2026 edition of the trade fair that closed its doors last Monday, with attendance figures, but our impression was positive during the four days we spent at the show. We will progressively report on things that we have ...
