Maui Jim
Premium polarized sunglasses built on the PolarizedPlus2 lens. Before the sale it was the largest independently owned high-end eyewear brand in the world.
Status: Watchlist
- Founded
- 1987
- Website
- mauijim.com
- HQ
- USA
- Manufacturing
- USA,Various
- Ownership type
- Conglomerate subsidiary
- Parent
- Kering Eyewear
- Acquired
- 2022
- Status since
- 2026-07-08
Ownership
Kering Eyewear signed in March 2022 and completed the purchase on 3 October 2022 at an undisclosed price. This is the rollup counterpart to Luxottica: Kering Eyewear had already bought Lindberg and crossed EUR 1B in revenue with this deal. Parent Kering carried EUR 9.5B in net debt by mid-2025 and is divesting non-core assets under new CEO Luca de Meo.
Why Watchlist
The last big independent sold into a luxury rollup. The stewardship record so far is decent: real capital into Peoria, and the repair program still runs. The risk sits at parent level, where deleveraging puts every non-core asset under review. Reader claims of layoffs and quality decline did not verify.
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