Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Jun 04, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Jun 04, 2005 |
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Marketing
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New Products & Services Swatch group plans 3 Longines boutiques Ambar Singh Roy
Kolkata, June 3 THE Swatch Group has firmed up plans to open three exclusive Longines boutiques in India in the current calendar year. While the first one will be set up in New Delhi in September, the other two will be opened in Mumbai and Kolkata later during the year. The Country Manager of the Swatch Group in India, Mr Gopalratnam Kannan, told Business Line that the boutiques would not only serve as "marketing tools" but also help showcase the Longines range under one roof. The Swatch Group has six brands in India, namely Omega, Rado, Longines, Tissot, Briguet and Swatch. In India, there are two boutiques each of Omega and Rado and four kiosks of Swatch. Mr Gopalratnam said the size of the domestic market for watches in the luxury segment was estimated to be in the Rs 600-800 crore range. While a substantial portion of the watches in the luxury segment are sold in India, some of the high-end watches are purchased by customers directly from places such as Singapore and Dubai. In the process, they avoid payment of customs duty, local sales tax and other imposts, which together works out to about 80 per cent of the original cost of the watches. According to him, watches priced at Rs 10,000 and above are categorised as luxury segment watches. Swatch brands are available in India in the Rs 19,000-200,000 range. Mr Kannan declined to divulge financial details pertaining to the Swatch Group's sales in India but said that the group had a 80 per cent share of the Indian market for imported luxury segment watches. The Indian market for watches in the luxury segment was growing by about 35 per cent per annum, he said. Longines today launched in Kolkata the DolceVita diamonds collection. Priced at Rs 53,000 and above, the Longines DolceVita diamond collection models come in a choice of mini, lady's and mid sizes.
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