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watches in 2019.)have done very well as a result. Our
role in the UK with Mvmt is to make
sure that we position it correctly,
we do not try to go too fast, even
if we could. We do not want to
over-distribute it because we want
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ourselves and our partners.
WatchPro: Does Movado Group
UK sell direct to consumer at all?
Steve Brydon: We do, yes. It tends
to be more of a storytelling exercise
for us and is a tiny percentage of
our business. Any brands that do
not have their own web presence
comes across as odd to customers.
Invariably, our retailers tell us,
almost every sale they make is to
a customer that has already done
their research online. If somebody is
coming online to research, it is our
job to make sure we are telling the
right story and telling it well.
WatchPro: Why is it such a small
percentage of your sales? I would
have thought you have the power
to make sure that if somebody
was Googling for a Tommy
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ecommerce site of one of your
retailers.
Steve Brydon: Our long term
objective is directed by the
knowledge that we need healthy
retailers. They support us and we
will support them. If your brand is
not visible in the key accounts, it is
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Could I recoup and keep all of the
coop funding we give to retailers
and spend it promoting our own
ecommerce efforts? Theoretically, I
could, but it would be suicide to do
that and I would not want to.
I might make a slightly higher
margin selling a watch myself than
I would if a retailer sold it, but the
most important thing is the longevity
of our brands and that requires
visibility. We are one of the last
companies to still have a major visual
merchandising team of 11 people.
Every one of our partners’ stores
is visited at least every six weeks.
Our biggest stores are visited every
two weeks to make sure that the
execution is as good as we can make
it. That is a massive investment from
our side.WatchPro: The UK retail
landscape is changing.
Department stores are closing,
Signet store sales are down.
Signet and Goldsmiths are trying
to get out of leases on dozens
of stores. How do you maintain
growth when your retail partners
are struggling so much?
Steve Brydon: The retail landscape,
with rents and business rates, is very
tough at the moment, but it is not
going away and I do not think it will
go away. From a department store
point of view, the past two years has
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seen it across all of them: John Lewis,
Debenhams, House of Fraser, there
have been dramatic changes. But
the ones that have stayed open have
become stronger. The big one was
House of Fraser, which has watch
concessions run by Fossil Group. We
were one of the few suppliers that
had managed to be present at those
concessions and it does hurt when
you lose those points of sale. My
view is that by the end of this year,
the remaining House of Fraser stores
that have watch concessions will
come back stronger again.WatchPro: Footfall is down
whether you are talking about
high streets, shopping centres of
out of town retail parks.
Steve Brydon: Yes, but in almost
every case where you see brick and
mortar store sales declining, you will
see the same stores’ ecommerce
sales increasing. The turnover
with any particular retailer will not
necessarily have gone down, it will
just have moved. We need to make
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that change. If customers want to
shop online because they do not
want to go into town, we need
to make sure that when they go
onto the ecommerce sites of our
retail partners, the execution of our
storytelling and brand presentation
is excellent. This is already workingfor us. 30% of the value of our sales is
online right now.WatchPro: Strategic choices must
have been made some time ago
so that it does not matter whether
the percentage of online sales for
your partners increases from 30%
to 50%, you just need to maintain
or grow your share whether it is
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Steve Brydon: I would be surprised if
ecommerce sales increased to 50%
any time soon.WatchPro: GfK data suggests
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down for almost two years. What
once looked like the saviour for
retailers is stalling.
Steve Brydon: Yes, but GfK does not
report directly owned ecommerce
or brick and mortar store sales. For
example, it would not include sales
from Omega.com or Omega’s own
stores. Nor does it have sales data
from the Michael Kors and Hugo
Boss boutiques and websites. That is
a considerable part of the market so
I do take the news that ecommerceMOVADO GROUP UK / THE BIG INTERVIEW
watchpro.com / AUGUST 2019 / WATCHPRO 21