WILMINGTON, Del.— Emerging Vision Inc. (OTC BB: ISEE.OB) has emerged as the successful buyer of the eight The Eye Gallery locations and two The Artful Eye locations in the bankruptcy proceedings here for MacKeyser Holdings/American Optical Services, according to an order filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Sept. 18. The Eye Gallery locations are located in Georgia and Florida. One of The Artful Eye location is in Atlanta, and the other is in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.

Emerging Vision’s CEO, Glenn Spina, told VMail, “"We have been looking, over the past two years, to grow our portfolio of stores through acquisition and when this opportunity arose, knowing the Eye Gallery’s prior track record and reputation pre-AOS, we became very intrigued and excited about the potential that existed to bring these locations back to their prior glory. We are looking forward, with the help of our vendor/partners,to getting to work beginning next week to accomplish just that."

Spina added, “We will maintain the Eye Gallery/Artful Eye name in both Atlanta and Florida. We are not considering franchising the locations at this time, but may consider that in the future.”

Wisconsin Vision, Inc., which currently owns and/or owns and operates 35 locations in the Midwest (Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois) under the Wisconsin Vision and Eye Boutique brands, had previously bid on these locations, as reported previously on Aug. 29, but that bid did not go through in the final court proceedings. Today, however, Darren Horndasch, Wisconsin Vision’s CEO told VMail, “We did end up with the two former Optiview locations in Indiana, which were part of our original goals. We’re very upbeat about their potential to expand our reach into that market.”

Emerging Vision, Inc. and (EVI) subsidiaries operates one of the largest chains of retail optical stores both franchised and company owned in the U.S., with approximately 118 locations under the brands of Sterling Optical and Site for Sore Eyes. The company also owns and operates two buying groups, the Combine Buying Group in the U.S. and The Optical Group in Canada.

EVI operates VisionCare of California, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary that is a specialized health care maintenance organization licensed by the State of California, Department of Managed Health Care. Lastly EVI has created a non-profit arm, Project Eyesight, to help those without access to eyecare.

MacKeyser and its subsidiaries, which include American Optical Services (AOS) and a number of other optical businesses the company had previously acquired, filed for bankruptcy in June 2014, soon after Thomas Allison was named CEO following the termination of the company’s former CEO, Pierre Keyser, and former COO, Erica Perreira, amidst a “liquidity crisis” and “accounting irregularities.”