Mondottica buys French eyewear brand Yves Cogan, renews licence agreements with several fashion labels

By

Gianluca Bolelli

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Mar 2, 2017

British eyewear group Mondottica has bought luxury eyeglasses label Yves Cogan, renowned for its high quality, made-in-France products and founded in 1994 in Molinges, France. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The acquisition will allow Yves Cogan to expand its international distribution. The label is currently available in over 2,000 multibrand retailers in France, as well as in 200-plus in Denmark and 100-plus in Austria, as well as having a scattered presence in 31 other countries in all the five continents.

As Mondottica stated in a press release, the acquisition is strategically crucial for the British group too. By integrating a producer like Yves Cogan in its business, Mondottica now becomes a fully fledged manufacturing company, able to "expand in the hyper-luxury segment through its dedicated business unit Brando, and also to provide further production and tech innovation capabilities to the group's new own-brand division, Spine Optics."

Yves Cogan will still be based at its current French headquarters, and its eponymous founder will continue to collaborate with the company as an independent consultant on an exclusive basis.
 
Meanwhile, at the MIDO international eyewear trade show recently ended in Milan, Mondottica presented the first models it created for the Cath Kidston eyeglasses/sunglasses lines, and the first Karen Millen sunglasses. Licences for these brands were signed in 2016, and the models are available for sale from January.
 
Mondottica has also extended its eyewear production and distribution licenses for Pepe Jeans London until 2019, for Ted Baker until 2020 and for Christian Lacroix until 2018.

Mondottica is based in Hong Kong and was founded in the UK in 2003 by Canadian entrepreneur Michael Jardine, working with partners in Germany, the UK, France, India and Australia. The group currently operates offices and subsidiaries in Hong Kong, London, Paris, Barcelona, Brussels, Venice, Moscow, New York and Sydney, and its eyewear products are distributed worldwide.