EXHIBIT 99.1

                      COLE NATIONAL AMENDS CREDIT AGREEMENT

         CLEVELAND, Ohio, Dec. 19, 2002 -- Cole National Corporation (NYSE: CNJ)
announced today that it has amended covenants in its agreement with the bank
lenders for its $75 million credit facility to accommodate anticipated changes
in the accounting treatment for the sale of certain optical warranties and the
auditing costs associated with restating the Company's financial statements.

         On November 26, 2002, Cole National announced a change in the timing of
the recognition of revenue earned on the sale of optical warranties. The Company
also announced that it would restate its historical financial statements. The
Company immediately received a waiver through December 31, 2002 from its bank
lenders. At the time, Cole National also announced that it anticipated
concluding an amendment to its credit agreement prior to year-end.

ABOUT COLE NATIONAL

         Cole National Corporation's vision business, together with Pearle
franchisees, has 2,178 locations in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and the Virgin
Islands, and includes Cole Managed Vision, one of the largest managed vision
care benefit providers to approximately 94 million members with multiple
provider panels and 20,000 practitioners. Cole's personalized gift business,
Things Remembered, serves customers through 781 locations nationwide, catalogs,
and the Internet at WWW.THINGSREMEMBERED.COM. Cole also has a 21% interest in
Pearle Europe, which has more than 1,145 optical stores in Austria, Belgium,
Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia and
Sweden.


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