Timex Watches to cut losses, focus on exports

Sambit Datta

Mumbai, Sept 20: Timex Watches Ltd (TWL) has embarked on growth-oriented strategies to improve both topline and bottomline growth. As a part of its debt restructuring exercise, the company plans to roll over its credit line of $10 million with HSBC for a year.

Timex Watches plans to market global brands like Guess, Timberland and Nautica in India through its distribution network. Timex Corporation of USA, the parent company of Timex Watches BV, already has a marketing tie-up for these brands. TWL is also planning to roll out the Opex (French) and Galentia (Italy) collections in India from its internationally acquired companies.

In an exclusive interview with The Financial Express, TWL managing director Kapil Kapoor said, “While there has been a downturn in the watch market, Timex has grown significantly by over 40 per cent in the last six months of this fiscal. We will reduce last year’s losses by over 50 per cent. With the present market-share of 23 per cent, we expect to make a turnaround by 2003.”

He added,”Profit for growth is our objective and we are vacating our lower margin segment product to focus on the profitable segment ie between the price range between Rs 1000-Rs 5000 which include premium and high quality watches, which are well differentiated in the market. The company is transforming its image from that of being a lower segment player into being a brand which targets the young at heart”. Mr Kapoor added that the possibility of transforming the Indian operation in to a wholly owned subsidiary exists but as of now there is no such plan.

In order to consolidate its position in the export market, the company is concentrating on export of watch components. “For finished products we are looking at exporting to neighbouring countries but for components we are looking at Phillipines, US and Mexico and we expect 10 per cent of the total turnover from export” he said.

Timex has already introduced a hi-tech product under the ‘Cognoscenti’ collection with advanced features like receiving emails, news headlines and weather data. Timex Data Link has already been launched and heart rate monitor and internet messenger is yet to be launched in India in a phased manner. Globally, Timex has tied up with Microsoft and Motorola to incorporate the latest technology into their watches. In India, TWL is on the look out for a similar tie-up for both service connection and service back up. TWL is also set to launch a new collection under the name Matrix.