Rendezvous

TIMEX

A RENDEZ-VOUS WITH V. D. WADHWA

Timex Group India’s new MD, VD Wadhwa,is largely credited with the re-establishment of entire distribution and retail base after the split of the company’s joint venture with the Tatas. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and a fellow of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He has over 25 years of experience in various industries and has been associated with the company since its inception in various capacities and largely credited with the re-establishment of the entire distribution and retail base after seperation of the Timex JV with Tatas. Subsequently, he played a major role in the profitable turnaround of Timex India operations through businesses and financial restructuring. Before taking over as the MD, he was responsible for the company’s business development initiatives and was involved with several global assignments for business restructuring. In an exclusive interview with Watch Market Review Group’s Managing Editor Sunil Karer, he outlines the holistic strategy and thrust that he will adopt to make the world’s third largest watchmaker Timex India consolidate its position in the Indian market. Excerpts...
You have recently said that expanding your retail presence is the key. Do you feel that all watch companies need to adopt this aggressively in India? The Timex group, being an international entity with globally renowned brands, has always created excellent quality products in sync with the latest global designs. In addition, the Timex Group has eleven international brands in its portfolio, which caters to all price points and TG’s. Retail expansion is a key priority for Timex Group India and we are going to take it forward more effectively and aggressively. In our view, any watch brand with in-house portfolio of brands and catering to wider price points must look at retail expansion seriously. What are requirements for doing this successfully? What kinds of investments are needed? I would say, more than the investments, we need to have more like minded partners on board, who are willing to grow with us while living our vision and also understanding the strength that they would get with this association. The Timex Group is a leading global player with a number of reputed brands such as Guess, Nautica, Marc Ecko, Salvatore Ferragamo, Versace and many more, which have not yet been launched in India or have been very recent introductions and have yet to see their full potential. Investment is really no big deal in today’s world provided one is pursuing a good strategy. Do you really feel that too much reliance on multi-brand, mom & pop stores as retail platform leads to little control over the retail environment? Explain? There is a saying that “too much” and “too little” of anything is bad. Growth is possible only by keeping a fine balance across all relevant channels and not being over dependent on any one. While multi brands stores are our key partners in success and shall continue to do so, it is needless to mention that we are in a very competitive world where differentiation is the key. For me, owning retail for our own brands today is one thing that is acting as a differentiator for brands. It helps us create a perfect experience zone that exhibits what you as a brand stands for and keeps the consumer engaged with your brand. Don’t you think that multi-brand, mom and pop stores have a strong role to play considering that India is such a vast country and it will be difficult for any company to make such huge investments to cover the length and breadth of India? Mom and Pop stores have been an integral part of the Indian household and would continue to be so given the large and diversified population of India. However, every organization has to define its target audience before defining the role of channel partners. The product portfolio of Timex does not consist of only watches or brands that cater to the urban population hence, it was very important for us to expand our footprint to cover the entire country using multi brand and mom and pop stores. Won’t you risk alienating the trade by your rapid expansion of self owned stores or exclusive boutiques? I don’t see that at all. In fact, as I said before the more connected we are to our consumers the more they would ask for Timex and the more they ask for us, the more it’s going to be beneficial for all the channel partners. Tell us about the various several global assignments for business restructuring that you managed? I’ve been involved with the business and financial restructuring of our business in Russia, Portugal, Spain and Brazil as a part of our global drive.