PIAGET
The first watchmaker to go into retail in the early 1990s, Piaget introduces 100 new watches and 100 new jewellery pieces every year, operating directly in more than 20 countries through its own subsidiaries, whilst the rest of the world is covered by agents. The company operates through its own dedicated retail stores, or through independent watch retailers, with 67 stores, of which 36 are run as external franchises.
Watch retailers generally operate out of street level stores, in which Piaget will often have a dedicated shop-in-shop – particularly in Asia.

Piaget finished its financial year in March 2009; it was a record year with a single-digit, yet pleasing growth rate. However, conditions proved much harder from October 2008 onwards, says CEO Philippe Leopold-Metzger.

“The good news is that our retail sales are outperforming our wholesale sales, which proves that consumers are still buying at a reasonably high level, and that retailers are managing their levels of stock with great care – and rightly so,” he says.
The company plans to open ten new stores during 2009, all of which will be located in Asia and the Middle East. Its most recent openings were in Ekaterinbourg in Siberia, and Xian, Shenyang and Changsha in China.

“Retail, both internal and external, accounts for over 40 per cent of our sales,” explains Leopold-Metzger. “Ideally we should have a 50/50 balance between retail and wholesale; if we continue forward, we should reach 100 stores by 2012 at the latest.”
Piaget flagship stores are situated in Paris, Geneva, Hong Kong and New York, and are exceptional due more to their location than their size. “We are against those huge flagship stores, because they don’t allow us to express our DNA of exclusivity,” explains Leopold-Metzger. “We want to treat each client, and each potential client in a friendly, personal and professional manner, not see them lost in huge, impersonal stores.”

With that in mind, Piaget has opened a store in Geneva, its largest in the world at over 250sq m. “We decided to cut it in two,” continues Leopold-Metzger. “The ground floor for sales, the upper floor for after-sales, a VIP room and, more importantly for the Piaget Time Gallery, a 100sq m space where we show historic pieces of Piaget.”
The Time Gallery is not a museum, but an interactive space where the company
features two or three thematic exhibitions per year, that retrace the history of the brand.
The same two-storey concept is scheduled to open in May on the Canton Road in
Hong Kong.

“We want to be in the best luxury streets in the world or, as is the case in Japan, China and the US, in the best department stores and shopping malls,” he says. “We will open our first store in May in Chep Lap Kok airport, Hong Kong, because we gain great traffic and a qualitative environment; we need to be in a situation where we have the best brand names as neighbours.

“Retail stores are our most efficient communication tool, providing us with a unique opportunity to place our products in front of clients that have entered that luxury environment to see and to shop.”

For the full article please see the RLI May 09 issue
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