It all began in 1951 in Montreal, where Fred and Judith Hochstadter were about to revolutionize the optical industry in Canada. COS began as a small private home office with business activities in Quebec and Ontario. Over the years, the COS Family grew from the original downtown Montreal office to its current location on the west side of the city, serving eye care professionals across Canada.
70 years and 3 generations later, the Montreal family business continues to develop strong and lasting relationships with its customers.
Looking back at a successful journey:
In 1964, the high-end eyewear manufacturer Silhouette was founded and immediately appointed COS to be the exclusive distributor of the brand in Canada. In 1993, Silhouette offered COS to distribute the adidas sport eyewear collection, a stretch which lasted for 25 years. The trust placed in COS by the Silhouette Group from the very beginning is still a source of great pride almost 60 years later.
The Danish brand Inface joined the company’s brand portfolio in 2002. A number of years later, it introduced the nifties collection, offering products specially designed for fine facial features. Recognizing the importance of this niche in eyewear, Inface and COS worked together to develop this unique collection which combines the best of Danish design, sized for small faces. When Design Eyewear Group purchased the inface brand, they finally made this vision a reality. Inface and Nifties are now two popular and trendy brands that, despite changes of ownership, chose to stay at COS.
Faced with the complexity for optical laboratories to edge and drill Silhouette rimless frames, COS decided to open its own lab. When the opportunity presented itself, COS added adidas sun Rx lenses to its lens portfolio becoming the only Silhouette distributor to develop adidas 8-base sun Rx lenses thanks to the lab which was already in place.
COS and its lab took innovation even further by creating their own brands. Fitson was launched in 2012 followed by Code in 2015. Designed in Montreal by COS employees, these brands offer new trendy and affordable products.
2021 marks the 70th anniversary of a family initiative that continues to transform the Canadian eye care industry every day by delivering high quality services.
Click HERE for the full press release.
