Exhibit 99

                    REPORT OF INDEPENDENT PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

To the Administrative Committee of Cole National Group, Inc.:

                  We have audited the accompanying Statements of Net Assets
Available for Benefits of the Cole National Corporation 401(K) Plan For
Employees at Pearle Vision Centers (the "Plan") as of December 31, 2000 and
1999, and the related Statement of Changes in Net Assets Available for Benefits
for the year ended December 31, 2000. These financial statements and the
schedule referred to below are the responsibility of the Plan Administrator. Our
responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and
schedule based on our audits.

                  We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards
generally accepted in the United States. Those standards require that we plan
and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial
statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a
test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and
significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall
financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a
reasonable basis for our opinion.

                  In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above
present fairly, in all material respects, the net assets available for benefits
of the Plan as of December 31, 2000 and 1999, and the changes in its net assets
available for benefits for the year ended December 31, 2000, in conformity with
accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.

                  Our audit was made for the purpose of forming an opinion on
the basic financial statements taken as a whole. The supplemental schedule of
assets held for investment purposes at end of year (Schedule I) is presented for
purposes of additional analysis and is not a required part of the basic
financial statements but is supplementary information required by the Department
of Labor's Rules and Regulations for Reporting and Disclosure under the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The supplemental schedule has been
subjected to the auditing procedures applied in the audit of the basic financial
statements and, in our opinion, is fairly stated in all material respects in
relation to the basic financial statements taken as a whole.


/s/ Arthur Andersen LLP

Cleveland, Ohio,
June 21, 2001.