Supplier delays sent KNCO into receivership — its six brands went to Denmark

KNCO — formally Karavan Production, based at Guichainville near Évreux in Normandy — was one of the actors of independent eyewear in France: a house of creator brands, chiefly François Pinton and Karavan for adults, Karavan Kids and Kaliboo for children, plus the children's licences Jacadi and Catimini. In 2024 it generated more than €12 million in turnover and shipped more than 200,000 frames.

The trouble, by the company's own account, came from its supply chain: difficulties in recent months, notably delivery delays from certain strategic suppliers. On 25 July 2025 KNCO announced that it had voluntarily opened receivership proceedings before the Tribunal des activités économiques de Paris — a restructuring, it said, to secure its know-how, its collections and its brands, with deliveries, customer service and aftersales continuing without interruption.

Three months later the portfolio was on the block. On 10 October 2025 the Danish group Design Eyewear Group announced the acquisition, à la barre du tribunal, of the six brands — François Pinton, Karavan, Karavan Kids, Kaliboo, Jacadi and Catimini — taking control on 11 October. About fifteen KNCO staff, among them four designers and product managers, joined the Danish group to keep developing the lines.

The shape of the case: a supply-chain shock became a cash crisis, and the restructuring meant to save the house ended in the loss of everything that made it a house. The heritage lines crossed to a competitor — DEG, fresh from buying Menrad in June — while the Normandy company that had carried them since the seventies kept the shell.