iVision Tech, Macron's eyewear company focuses on innovation and technology

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - To innovate in a traditionalist market. This is the objective of iVision Tech, an innovative SME and a reality of excellence in Italian manufacturing active in the design and production of eyeglass frames. And to do this, the path to follow is that of technology, in which the group has invested over 2 million euros to date. "The global eyewear market has a growth rate, hence a Cagr, of around 6-7%. The growth rate for smart glasses is 27%. Clearly we are talking about much smaller numbers that are growing, but these are numbers that are changing,' Radiocor Stefano Fulchir, managing director of iVision Tech, explains to Radiocor. In fact, in addition to more traditional glasses, the company is focusing on two tech products: HJ tech - the smart glasses - and iSee - the glasses for the blind.

"Ours started out as a social project to improve the lives of blind people," says the CEO, referring to the iSee, a pair of glasses that "detects up to 30 objects at the same time at a distance of up to four metres and sends acoustic signals to the right or left depending on where the obstacles are. It is a technology that derives from the automotive, it uses ultrasound that works like radar,' Fulchir goes on to explain, pointing out that 'the group as a family also has companies close to the automotive world' and that 'iVision itself has a minority stake in Zetronic', a company specialising in mechatronics, which is active in the automotive sector. The CEO points out that iSee is a Made in Italy product, as it has technology designed, developed and produced in Italia, which allows the group to maintain a more affordable price. "In terms of turnover, we are talking about a niche market, but it is a niche that also has a social theme," Fulchir specifies. And it is precisely this product, patented in Italia, that is now about to land in the United States, where the company has obtained acceptance of the patent application.

Ninety per cent of iVision's turnover - growing to 15.5 million in 2025 - comes from its productions for international brands, the remaining 10 per cent from its own brands, which include iSee, HJ Tech and Henry Jullien, the eyewear that became famous thanks to French President Emmanuel Macron. "We took over this French company that had gone bankrupt three times and after three years of work we brought it to have this visibility, also thanks to luck, in a certain respect," explains the top manager. "We delivered the glasses to Macron in June 2024 and he used it at the most important event," at the Davos economic forum, making it "a symbol".

And Henry Jullien's technological son, in the words of the CEO, is HJ tech, the smart glasses that can be connected to the mobile phone via Bluetooth, designed and developed in Italia and assembled abroad to keep costs down.

Looking to the near future, as mentioned, the aim is to focus more and more on technology. "The global eyewear market in 2025 recorded -40% turnover, so a very strong reduction, and we working B2B are feeling the effects. We managed more or less a 17 to 18 per cent drop and managed to compensate for it thanks to the growth of electronics. We are one of the few companies in the eyewear industry that did not have to resort to lay-offs precisely because we were able to weather this period through innovation,' explains the CEO.