All Eyewear Intelligence articles in Volume 27 No. 1
View all stories from this issue.
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News briefs
TOG Q3 revenue down despite improvements in the US and Europe
Thai Optical Group (TOG) has reported a 2.0 percent year on year decline in revenue to 828 million thai baht (€22m) in Q3 FY 2025, improving significantly from the 8.2 percent drop in the previous quarter. The company said that the reduction of the finalized rate of 19 percent for ...
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ArticleCooper announces strategic review, 5% uptick in annual CVI sales
CooperVision reported Q4 sales of $709.6 million, up 4.6% year-on-year, with growth driven by the Americas region and strong performance from its MyDay contact lens portfolio. CooperCompanies stock price shot up after the group announced that it was conducting a strategic business review, seemingly in response to activist investor pressures.
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News briefs
MIDO 2026 announces list of exhibitors, event updates
MIDO has announced that it was expecting 1,200 exhibitors from 50 countries, including 140 newcomers, to take part in the 2026 edition of the show from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 in Milano. That is in line with participation to this year’s event. The list, which keeps being updated, is ...
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ArticleVSP launches third innovation challenge, scans the 'patient of the future'
VSP Vision, in partnership with Topcon Healthcare and Silicon Foundry, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology companies, is launching its third Innovation Challenge, “a worldwide call for visionary solutions that elevate the eye care experience and empower optometrists.” VSP 2026 Innovation Challenge kicks off The VSP Global ...
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Article
Carl Zeiss Meditec posts solid full-year results, terminates CEO mandate
Carl Zeiss Meditec has reported a 7.8 percent year-over-year increase in revenue to €2,228 million in the 2024/25 fiscal year ended Sept. 30. The company’s topline rose by 8.6 percent at constant currencies and by 3.3 percent on an organic basis. The revenue uptick was driven by the ...
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ArticleFrench optical market driven by health care needs rather than fashion or promotions, new research stresses
A comprehensive survey of 3,000 French glasses wearers by the country’s main opticians’ association shows that the vast majority prioritise medical necessity over fashion when purchasing new eyewear, with 92% citing visual needs as their primary motivation for renewal.
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ArticleGoogle announces first AI (audio) glasses for 2026
The first AI glasses developed by Google, in collaboration with Samsung and Qualcomm on the technology side and with Warby Parker on the frames side, will launch in 2026, the group said earlier this week during its Android Show/XR Edition event. This is the first time that a launch target ...
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ArticleInspecs board accepts £85m takeover by two British entrepreneurs
Inspecs Group’s board has agreed to an £85 million acquisition by two British entrepreneurs Luke Johnson and Ian Livingstone, formerly majority owner and chairman of Optika Clulow, after rejecting offers from Safilo Group.
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News briefs
Optic 2000 appoints new general manager
Effective Jan. 5, 2026, French optical and hearing aids retailer Optic 2000 has appointed Martine Loyer as its new general manager in replacement of Benoit Jaubert who abruptly passed away in May. She will oversee all retail banners of the company (Optic 2000, Lissac, Audio 2000) as well as Gadol, ...
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News briefs
Eyes + More opens 300th store
Eyes + More has announced the opening of its 300th store, a 93-square-meter location in Linz, Austria. The retail chain, which also operates stores in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, is now targeting 30 openings in Austria in the midterm. At the European scale, it has set itself a ...
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News briefs
Alcon upgraded bid for STAAR Surgical still contested
Alcon has upped its offer to acquire STAAR Surgical, a California-based refractive surgery company that specializes in Implantable Collamer Lenses (ICLs), the company announced on Dec. 9, 2025. The newly agreed price of $30.75 per share, up from $28 in the initial agreement, values the target company at approximately $1.6 ...
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News briefs
Hoya Vision Care’s Western Europe VP to also lead North America
Oliver Fischbach, Hoya Vision Care’s Senior Vice President for Western Europe, is now also overseeing the Japanese lens manufacturer’s business in North America, the company has announced. Fischbach is replacing Edouardo Martins, who has stepped down after six years at the helm of the group’s US branch. The German executive ...
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News briefs
OBE restructures management team
Effective Dec. 31, 2025, Erik Schäfer, Managing Director of the OBE group, will step down from his position after over 35 years at the company, including more than 22 as a management board member. He will continue to collaborate with OBE in an advisory capacity, the group has announced. ...
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News briefs
EssilorLuxottica acquires another ophthalmology clinics group
EssilorLuxottica is set to acquire Signifeye, a prominent Belgian ophthalmology platform, the group has announced. This acquisition adds to the group’s growing presence in ophthalmology clinics, with Signifeye operating 15 eye centers in the Flanders region. The move follows the recent acquisition of Optegra, which manages over 70 clinics across ...
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ArticleItalian eyewear exports slip 3% in first eight months as US struggles, other markets improve
The value of Italian eyewear exports in the first eight months of 2025 fell by3.4 percent to €3,519 million as sales in the US continued to suffer in the wake of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump earlier this year but markets in Europe and elsewhere showed signs of ...
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News briefs
Rokid Glasses total crowdfunding campaign tops €6m
Rokid has announced that it has raised 62 New Taiwanese dollars (€1.7m) on zeczec, a Taiwanese crowdfunding service, for its AI/AR Rokid Glasses. The company stressed that it was the most successful crowdfunding campaign on zeczec in 2025 across all product categories. The campaign started on Oct. 28, and the ...
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News briefs
Mitsui expands portfolio with AR glasses polymer wafers
Mitsui Chemicals is launching Diffrar, a new optical wafer whose name – combining the word “diffraction” and the abbreviation “AR” (augmented reality) – underlines its purpose: AR glasses lenses incorporating waveguides. The company claims that it has developed the world’s first optical polymer wafers with refractive indices of 1.67 and ...
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ArticleJEH jumps back to double-digit sales increase in Q3
Japan Eyewear Holdings (JEH) revenue bounced back sharply in the third quarter of the group’s 2025/26 fiscal year, increasing by 18.2 percent year over year to 4.5 billion Japanese yen (€25m). In the first half of the year, the Japanese-based retail group’s topline increased by 7.7 percent versus FY 2024/25. ...
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News briefs
Spectaris/ZVA report points to opportunities in the declining German optical market
Spectaris, the German optical industry association, and ZVA, the national association of opticians and optometrists, have announced the publication of their joint Industry Report 2024/2025. The report is partly based on the latest Allenbasch study, a national survey published every five years that showed that the percentage of German aged ...
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News briefs
The EU introduces €3 duty on small parcels
The European Union has decided to implement a temporary customs duty of €3 per item on e-commerce parcels valued under €150, starting July 1, 2026. This change ends the previous tax exemption for such shipments, and is expected to impact Chinese e-commerce retailers like Shein,Temu or AliExpress, which accounted for ...
