Our Story – Windsor Eyes

Independent Origins

Founding the Company

1971

In 1971, when I was 6 years old, my father, Jay Kitnick, left a position with the Naval Reserves, enlisted a few investors, and with $10,000, he founded Windsor Optical. The plan was simple: source eyewear from small, independent manufacturers and use boots-on-the-ground sales reps and wholesalers to provide quality eyewear to opticals coast to coast. It worked. Within a few years, Jay had solidified relationships with family-owned manufacturers in Italy, France, Spain, and Japan who were eager to sell their wares in the US market. A small bevy of hard-working sales reps completed the deal and Windsor Optical became known up and down the coasts and in the metropolitan areas in between.

A Family Business

Mid-1970's

By the mid 70’s, late elementary to early junior high school, I was spending my Saturdays in the warehouse in New Jersey making ones and twos as we called them; the small boxes Windsor shipped one or two pieces of eyewear to the opticians and optometrists for their patient orders. By then, my mother, Ellen Kitnick, had joined Windsor as designer and frame buyer and worked with the manufacturing families on shapes and colors using her unique styling and natural eye-on-trends to guide the Windsor brand for years to come. Meetings at the growing trade shows in NYC, LA, and Paris, were like watching extended families enjoying dinner together. My brother Ken and I played with the other family’s kids who would soon become our peers in the industry.

Ken Takes the Helm

2000

Jay’s eldest son and my brother, Ken, took the helm at Windsor in the early 2000’s. He’s worked through both growth and decline and through unprecedented consolidation within the industry. He leads today, always with an eye towards the independent practioner and how Windsor can make a difference in their business. Still a family run business, still growing as families do.

Style and Design

Over 50 Years

I remember the grand Saturday night trade show dinners with the reps and the mfgs and us around the largest table the restaurants could provide. I remember the frame names that sold so well across the US that we could barely keep them in stock: the model Joan with the temple beginning at the bottom of the eye rather than the top as traditional; the model Sophia, a cat-eye, what was that? Men’s metals in large 62 and 64 eyes were always requested and Windsor always had them. Over 50 years ago, Jay built it and they came.

- Glenn Kitnick

Looking Forward

Without Limits

“When we show our true interest in our account’s success and give them the tools to increase profits and not just board space, we become partners, not just another frame supplier.”

Over the past 50 years, Windsor Eyes, under its distribution arm, has developed and maintained a steady, loyal account base that has relied on Windsor product to meet their patient’s needs. We have provided affordable eyewear for all shapes and sizes, luxury eyewear, classically branded eyewear, ANSI standards safety eyewear, accessories, and display fixtures. We will continue to be that company without limits.

Our focus for the future is on the independent eyecare professional who is trying to compete and grow in a field that is experiencing massive consolidation making it harder to hold onto patients who are willing to compromise attentive, personal care to save a few bucks on an eye exam and pair of glasses.

Looking forward, Windsor Eyes is changing the landscape. We are moving to enhance your practice with programs that align Windsor as a partner; something more than your typical frame supplier with a fill-your-board mentality. We have introduced the WindsorRx (WRX) program providing frame board management, custom displays, and prescription frames with the latest digital technology lenses in the industry. Working through the program, The ECP can increase their margins and also capture their patient’s second pair of frames after their insurance is exhausted.

On the horizon are programs to reduce the office personnel’s time spent managing their frame boards so they can focus on their practice and their patients. We are working to provide a better web experience and are offering quick-entry Rx orders and status updates directly through www.windsoreyes.com. Our objective is to keep you in the game and enable your practice to be more profitable. Our goal is to be partners and together achieve another 50 years of success.