Cole National Corp. (ticker: CNJ, exchange: New York Stock Exchange) News Release - 8/31/2004


Cole National Announces Second Quarter 2004 Results Conference Call



CLEVELAND, Aug 31, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Cole National Corporation (NYSE: CNJ), a leading retailer of optical services and personalized gifts with over 2,900 locations throughout North America and the Caribbean and one of the nation's largest providers of managed vision care benefits, will host a conference call at 10:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 to discuss second quarter 2004 results.

A live webcast of the conference call will be available to all investors at the Cole National web site located at http://www.colenational.com . The call will also be simulcast at http://www.streetevents.com and http://www.companyboardroom.com . To listen to the call, please go to the web site at least fifteen minutes early to register, download and install any necessary audio software.

For those who cannot listen to the live broadcast, an audio replay of the call will be available on these web sites through October 7, 2004.

About Cole National

Cole National Corporation's vision business, together with Pearle franchisees, has 2,179 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 with multiple provider panels and nearly 20,000 practitioners. Cole's personalized gift business, Things Remembered, serves customers through 722 locations nationwide, catalogs, and the Internet at http://www.thingsremembered.com . Cole also has a 21% interest in Pearle Europe, which has 1,508 optical stores in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Kuwait, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Sweden.

SOURCE Cole National Corporation

</FONT>Joseph Gaglioti of Cole National Corporation, +1-330-486-3258</FONT>http://www.colenational.com