Most important is the positioning of the Timex brand itself, which is adapting to a world where apathy to traditional watches and gadgets from Apple are transforming the landscape. WatchPro: How has trading been for Timex Group over the past year of the pandemic. We had solid growth in Our existing brands had positive momentum. We were gaining market share in a lot of markets, and we were also on a path to grow our brand portfolio.
The last pre-pandemic event we had was a global sales meeting in Dubai in February and the energy there was extremely positive. Everybody was very optimistic.
Then, five weeks later, the world shut down because of covid. Our immediate priority was to implement a remote working model to ensure that our teams stayed safe and healthy, but also to ensure we had business continuity while we worked remotely.
I have to say I was really impressed by how quickly we were able to react to this unprecedented situation and every day since, I have been impressed with our team and how our business partners — licensors, vendors, customers — have handled the situation. Everybody we work with has shown incredible resilience and resourcefulness in finding solutions to minimise the impact of the pandemic, which we are still in.
Obviously, trading was impacted, especially in the second quarter, but after the initial shock consumer demand started to recover more quickly than we had expected. Each quarter since, our business has been getting stronger. Throughout the entire period, we have made sure that we have not just been playing defence to protect our cash position, but we really wanted to make sure that we continued throughout the year to develop our business and our brands.
In the Fall of , we launched complete collections and supporting marketing packages across all brands, and the same for Spring The feedback we have from our retailers is that many brands have not been doing that. We also went ahead with the launches of Furla and Missoni in Fall , as we had planned and there were some real success stories with the newness across our brands we introduced in that season.
For example, the new Timex Q colours, the Pacman T80, the luxury brands Versace and Ferragamo had some really strong sales throughout this period. We also saw Guess do much better again in some our top online and offline retailers.
We think those successes were greatly helped by how active we were and how committed we were in bringing new collections and stories to market. Looking ahead, we are really optimistic. We have strengthened our position in the market and we have a lot of exciting stories and newness in the pipeline so we expect to be another strong year for us.
WatchPro: It is a fascinating story from a business performance perspective, but for Timex it is even more interesting because you are a manufacturer, a wholesaler, a network of retailers. You have roughly 5, employees.
How do you, as a CEO keep track of all of that. What sort of dashboard do you have in front of you that tells you what is going on in such a challenging year. Tobias Reiss-Schmidt: There is no dashboard or blueprint for a situation like this. What has been crucial is to stay very close to the organisation throughout. I have spoken very regularly with the leadership team and the wider organisation as well. We have needed to be very clear on our priorities. For example, we would not compromise on the health and safety of our employees.
We had to implement very rigid policies, particularly on the manufacturing side around things like hygiene, distancing, creating pods of workers to minimize interaction so that if there was a case of covid, it did not spread throughout the whole factory.
We have been very successful with that. On our manufacturing side, we have never had a spread without a factory. Cases were always brought in from the outside and never spread from person to person within the factory because of the protocols we put in place. WatchPro: I read an interview with you from a few years ago when you said that growing market share was among your most important goals or KPIs.
We also want to invest in our production capabilities. Ten per cent of our overall production happens in India and that number is rapidly growing. All the products that are sold in India are produced here, given that we started producing here a year ago. We have a manufacturing unit in Himachal Pradesh. Production is a big part of our strategy in India.
We are also selling goods that are made in India, in Europe and in the West. In India, we think we can differentiate in the youth market. We still see opportunity in the core business of our brand, which is to deliver great design and great craftsmanship. We are constantly looking at how global Timex Group can support Timex Group India to continue this kind of development double-digit growth and how we can balance the global strategy to do what is right for the Indian consumer.
However, e-commerce business varies from place to place. As a company, we are taking a balanced approach towards e-commerce. Our priority globally and in India is to work very closely with our retail partners in the bricks-and-mortar space.
Meanwhile, we are building our own website. We will launch our website in India in the next few days, which is a big step for us. The website will be a commercial opportunity plus a chance to showcase all our products. It is a very competitive space and you have to make sure that you stand out.
Wearable technology segment is one opportunity. We are better positioned than most of our competitors to participate successfully in the wearable market when it becomes relevant and we have already launched a number of products. Very soon, we are going to launch a new type of fitness tracker. For the Indian market, we have added an SOS function in the tracker because of safety concerns that people have here. With this feature, the consumers will be able to send SOS messages to predefined contacts, which we feel will be a very attractive feature for the Indian market.
Where this new product differentiates itself is that it is not made by a technology company but by a watchmaker. We have a good know-how of technology space. We had invented the sports time category with Timex Ironman watches, the first sports watch. There is a common myth that nobody needs a watch any more; people have time on the phone. One strong trend that we are seeing is that people are coming back to watches again.
Timely fulfillment of all production is ensured through extensive planning and scheduling systems augmented with the latest in process and quality controls. Timex Group built its reputation as the pioneer in timekeeping and jewelry by harnessing the power and possibility of time. From the first clock and wristwatch we produced through data integration — from classic, time—honored designs through exclusive, luxury collector's pieces —— Timex Group continues to deliver unparalleled quality to a highly diverse and global customer.
Milan to Hong Kong, design sensibility and creativity inspire multiple lifestyle brands. From the hallmark everyday watches on which we built our reputation, to the exclusive, high—end offerings in our portfolio today, we are equipped to meet the needs of our brand partners. Designer Giorgio Galli and his Milan—based company have built an international presence and outstanding reputation as a leader in the field of modern timekeeping and jewelry design. Timex established it? The Toolroom and Injection moulding facility was commercialized in the year and has been renamed as Timex Group Precision Engineering Limited.
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