Vancouver-based Kits Eyecare Ltd. (TSX:KITS) saw revenue soar 34 per cent to a record $46.6 million in the first three months of 2025, while "sustained profitable growth" is at hand, according to CEO Roger Hardy.
The company, which released earnings after markets closed this afternoon, has bucked the stock market skittishness that has dogged many companies so far this year. Shares in the company are up 36.5 per cent so far this year, despite being down more than three per cent today. The TSX Composite Index, in contrast is up a marginal 0.31 per cent so far this year.
Kits was able to generate $1.6 million in profit, or net income, in the quarter ended March 31, compared to only $64,000 profit in the same quarter last year. This is not record net income for a quarter for the company, however, given that it generated a $2.7-million profit in the fourth quarter of last year.
"There was a lot of [foreign] exchange gain / FX last year," Hardy told BIV in a text this afternoon. "Normalized with FX out / this year's earnings are better."
Kits has scheduled a conference call to discuss earnings with analysts tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Pacific Time.
Hardy to hail what he called the company's 10th consecutive quarter of positive adjusted and record earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
He said "major growth drivers" were sales for progressive glasses and contact lenses, which compounded at a 50-per-cent growth rate. Those products have 50-per-cent profit margins, Hardy said.
Over time, "these pillars will drive improved margins and enhanced profitability," he said on LinkedIn.
The company told investors in a that it delivered a record 104,000 pairs of glasses, which was up from a previous record of 75,000 pairs of glasses.
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so they would not be subject to U.S. tariffs, Hardy told BIV in an interview in February.
Kits said that it expects revenue in the current quarter to be between $48 million and $50 million, which would be between three- and 7.3-per-cent more than that generated in the first quarter of this year.
The lion's share of Kits' revenue comes from online sales for eyewear, such as glasses and contact lenses. It also operates a coffee house at the corner of Cornwall Avenue and Yew Street, where eye glasses are on display.
Hardy's background includes being the founder of what became the Nasdaq-listed, Vancouver-based Coastal Contacts, which owned the Clearly Contacts brand in Canada.
He then in February 2014 sold the company to French lens giant Essilor for $430 million. That company then merged with Italy's Luxottica to become EssilorLuxottica and its Clearly Contacts division .
Hardy told BIV that , when he sold Coastal Contacts to Essilor.
He then looked into launching Kits in 2018 and 2019, along with co-founders Sabrina Liak and Joseph Thompson. He also made and Privé Reveau.
Clearly's operations in Vancouver have since shrunk.
Kits now uses Clearly's former manufacturing facility in Vancouver's Broadway Tech Park.
