Timex Watches Clocks Marginal Sales Decline

Timex Watches, which will formally be splitting from Titan Watches in September, has shown a marginal dip in its volume sales from 1.8 million pieces in 1996-97 to 1.7 million units in 1997-98. The company is yet to announce its annual results.

"The slight fall is largely due to the poor economic situation in the country," Timex all-India marketing controller, D Kannan, told newspersons here on Saturday.

Titan has a 28 per cent stake in Timex Watches, a subsidiary of the US-based Timex Inc, which is the third largest watch company globally. Kanan said the company plans to dispose of its large inventory of around two lakh watches by opening retail outlets called `outposts' at the outskirts of major cities in the country.

 

It would sell these watches at discounts between 20 and 40 per cent. These outlets would sell only those watches whose designs no longer find a market either because their sales had plateaued or because customer preference had changed. The first such `outpost' will be opened in Bangalore.

Kanan said these outlets would not affect the sale of its watches in other shops as the dealers would be given preference over customers to buy the discounted watches with a 7.5 per cent incentive as commission.

The company plans to set up more of such `outposts' in four other states soon.

He said nearly 240 designs would be on display at the Bangalore `outpost.'

To attract corporate customers, Timex has decided to take these watches to the doorsteps of the corporate houses.

Infosys Technologies, a software major, will be the first one to be targeted for such a campaign.

"We will focus on one corporate house every week," Kannan said. If the company is able to sell 50 watches at each of these outlets, it would achieve break-even, he added.

Timex has invested around Rs 82 crore in its plant at Noida, Uttar Pradesh, set up in 1992, and another Rs 15 crore in a unit for manufacturing watch cases. Timex is the third largest brand in the domestic market with a market share of 23 per cent.

Titan leads the pack followed by the public sector HMT.