By Maxime Frechette

Popular French optician and acoustics specialist Acuitis is launching its North American expansion in Quebec this fall, with the opening of a 3,226 square foot flagship boutique at CF Carrefour Laval in mid-November. The store will feature quality eyewear and hearing aid services, and a second Canadian location is also already confirmed for Acuitis.

The family business was founded in 2010 by father-son team Daniel and Jonathan Abbitan, with a goal of offering quality, affordably accessible eye and hearing care while also providing personalized, customer-centric service. Acuitis offers an ‘all inclusive’ service for its eyewear including eye examinations, mounting, lenses and any required adjustments. Glasses are often ready within an hour, with prices ranging from $120 to $550.

The company’s artistic Director Frédéric Beausoleil has worked with some of the world’s biggest names in eyewear (including Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs), and styles will be unique in Canada. This season, many frames will be brightly coloured to highlight a sportier look, while metal frames will be modern and minimalist. Acuitis will also offer branded sunglasses, such as Ray-Ban, Lacoste, Calvin Klein, Nike and others. The retailer also features ‘hearing glasses’, which feature hearing aids that are are attached to the sleeves of the frame.

Local Opticians Sevan Kechichian, Rémi Xhenseval and Juliette Fournier-Lemaire are behind the opening of the CF Carrefour Laval Acuitis.

Acuitis is expanding quickly, having recently opened 21 stores in Europe this year alone. The company currently operates 71 stores in France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and, most recently, Italy and England, with more to come.

A second Quebec boutique is already scheduled for spring 2018 at CF Promenade St-Bruno. When asked about more locations, the company says that it will first monitor the success of its first two stores before expanding further into North America. If an expansion launches as anticipated, Canada will see even more competition in the rapidly expanding optical retail market.

CF Carrefour Laval is one of the country’s top malls in terms of sales per square foot, according to Retail Council of Canada’s Shopping Centre Study. A 2017 study will be released next month, and there are sponsorship opportunities available for companies seeking exposure to the industry (email: mmarkou@retailcouncil.org). As well, Retail Council of Canada is hosting a discussion forum to coincide with the release of the study on November 21 at Google’s downtown Toronto headquarters. [Details]

*Images courtesy of Acuitis.

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: October 31, 2017