What about Japan?
Japan has been a difficult market
since a long time. It is a slow market in
terms of progress.
How important is Asia? And how
important is India going to be for
Audemars Piguet?
Asia, obviously, is a big priority for
us, as it is for any other brand which
wants to be among the global players in
this industry. I think it is a promising
region. It has established markets like
Japan and Singapore. And then there are
countries like China and India which are
extremely interesting. India is a territory
that we hopefully will conquer very
soon. The plan was to do that last year
but it was somehow delayed because of
the terrible events that occurred in your
country, especially the terror attacks.
I think it will now depend on the market
development in general. It’s clear that a
brand like ours needs to be in a country
like India for a long haul.
What are the key changes you see
in the luxury industry? Do you see
strong brands becoming even
stronger or the weak getting weaker?
I think a phase like this can exactly
lead to a phenomenon like you are
describing. The consumer goods industry
has a tendency for concentration and
the scale has certain importance. If you
are among the small ones then you really
have to go for a niche strategy. If you
are amongst the bigger players then
you can certainly deploy the means in marketing, distribution, manufacturing
and innovation to stay in the game to
be successful.
 |
|
|
Would it also be a good time for any
kind of acquisition?
Of course. This is the time when
opportunities arise.
At a strategic level, how critical is
Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet
and how do you see that changing
in the next five years?
I think it is very critical. The collection
of Royal Oak and Royal Oak
Offshore will soon be completing 40
years. That is something unique. I also
sense certain potential in the other
collection: Jules Audemars.
Where do we see the haute jewellery
segment in the women’s range going
in next five years?
This is a challenging topic for us.
I think we have beautiful stuff. We have
extremely elaborate know-how, but we
will see whether we can do better here.
I feel this segment will not be so easy
to conquer and gain market share in.
We saw some very good launches this
year from your side. Would you like
to pick your launch of the year?
The overriding theme is complicated
watches. And for me the launch of the year was this piece which we call internally
|
‘chron-AP’. It’s a piece that is
firmly rooted in the tradition of what
watch making is all about, with hightech
solutions, and that’s absolutely
fascinating for me.
Could you take us through your
manufacture facilities? You have
added a new section. Is it going to
take care of the supply side?
It maybe a little too adventurous to
exactly put it that way, but what we have
done is to build an entirely new facility
because of the explosive growth of the
company. We are transferring these
individual cells which have been a bit
scattered all over the place into a single
operation, with very logical workflows.
If you have optimal working conditions
then the watchmakers can really do an
excellent job. We also have state-of-theart
equipment.
By what percentage will the new
facility increase your capacities?
We can assume a growth of 40-50 per
cent.
Does that make Audemars Piguet the
second largest after Jaeger LeCoultre
in the Valle de Joux in terms of
workforce?
Yes. |
