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The company makes and sells nine different watch brands, ranging from licensed, lower-end lines like Tommy Hilfiger, priced starting at $75, to Ebel watches that can cost more than $50,000. Its Movado watch brand, which gave the company its name, is best known for its "Museum watch" -- which has a watch face adorned with just two hands and a single dot at 12 o'clock. The company also operates 27 retail boutiques in upscale U.S. malls. The boutiques sell Movado jewelry and home accessories as well as watches.
The company now named Movado Group Inc. began life as the North American Watch Co. in a small sales office in Manhattan. As recounted on the company's Web site, and in an article in WatchTime magazine in 2003, Gedalio "Gerry" Grinberg, [Efraim Grinberg]'s father, was a watch and clock sales representative in Cuba until he left with his wife and young children after being threatened by [Castro]'s secret police. In America, Piaget, a watch line Gerry Grinberg had sold in Cuba, asked him to represent the brand in New York City. Gerry Grinberg struggled at first to sell the elegant luxury watches, which, at a retail price of about $1,000, everyone told him were too expensive.
In 1983, Gerry Grinberg acquired the Swiss watch company Movado, a company founded in 1881 that had been faltering. The Grinbergs -- Efraim joined the company in 1980 -- quickly built Movado into a top brand, and changed the name of the company to Movado Group Inc. in 1996, three years after going public.
Jun. 9--These appear to be the best of times for the Movado Group Inc.
Wall Street analysts and observers are looking at the Paramus- based watch manufacturer's stock and telling investors it's a good time to buy.
Timely acquisitions of key licenses and brands have positioned the company to capitalize on growing global markets.
And President and CEO Efraim Grinberg appears to be having the time of his life running the company his father began 46 years ago after fleeing Castro's Cuba.
"I joined the business not knowing that I would stay here for the rest of my career, but I quickly fell in love with the product," said Grinberg, 48, in an interview last week at the company headquarters.
He had good reason to be in an upbeat mood that day. The company had just reported its first-quarter fiscal 2007 earnings had more than doubled over the prior year period, and
net sales were up more than 11 percent. Wall Street rewarded that earnings release by boosting the stock price by 23 percent that day.
Movado's sales last year topped $470 million, up more than 55 percent since 2003. Operating income grew 50 percent, to $47.5 million, over the same period.
The company makes and sells nine different watch brands, ranging from licensed, lower-end lines like Tommy Hilfiger, priced starting at $75, to Ebel watches that can cost more than $50,000. Its Movado watch brand, which gave the company its name, is best known for its "Museum watch" -- which has a watch face adorned with just two hands and a single dot at 12 o'clock. The company also operates 27 retail boutiques in upscale U.S. malls. The boutiques sell Movado jewelry and home accessories as well as watches.
Grinberg said he loves his job because it lets him "deal with really nice things" -- like the newly issued $1,295 Movado Anniversary watch he was wearing -- and "work with really creative people." But the really fun part, he added, is "rebuilding businesses, making businesses stronger, making brands stronger."
His most recent rebuilding success is the Ebel brand, which the company acquired in 2004 and turned profitable within two years. It's about to embark on a rebuilding campaign for its Concord brand, which is in a sales slump. And a turnaround in the 1980s changed the name and the direction of the company.
The company now named Movado Group Inc. began life as the North American Watch Co. in a small sales office in Manhattan. As recounted on the company's Web site, and in an article in WatchTime magazine in 2003, Gedalio "Gerry" Grinberg, Efraim's father, was a watch and clock sales representative in Cuba until he left with his wife and young children after being threatened by Castro's secret police. In America, Piaget, a watch line Gerry Grinberg had sold in Cuba, asked him to represent the brand in New York City. Gerry Grinberg struggled at first to sell the elegant luxury watches, which, at a retail price of about $1,000, everyone told him were too expensive.
Those struggles changed after Gerry Grinberg placed a small ad in The New Yorker advertising "The world's most expensive watch." That first ad is widely credited with ushering in the era of the luxury watch as status symbol and fashion statement.
"In the watch business in the United States he was truly a pioneer in the luxury segment," said Joe Thompson, editor-in-chief of WatchTime, who has covered Movado and the watch industry for close to 30 years.
In 1983, Gerry Grinberg acquired the Swiss watch company Movado, a company founded in 1881 that had been faltering. The Grinbergs -- Efraim joined the company in 1980 -- quickly built Movado into a top brand, and changed the name of the company to Movado Group Inc. in 1996, three years after going public.
The elder Grinberg has handed the day-to-day reins of the business to his son. "The torch has been passed," Thompson said. "From what I'm hearing Efraim is really running the firm," he said, adding that the successful Ebel acquisition was "all Efraim."
Efraim Grinberg has shown the same talent for marketing that built the company. "He sat by the side of a master for many years," Thompson said, "so he's got this combination of whatever's in the genes, and the time working with his father for all these years," Thompson said.
Efraim Grinberg said he sees more good times ahead for Movado. "We not only have a tremendously well-performing business right now, but we also have fantastic opportunities for the future," he said. One such opportunity, he said, is China, where a growing number of middle and upper-income consumers are aspiring to own American status symbols like Movado watches.
"Movado represents a great opportunity to enable the Chinese consumer to buy accessible luxury," Grinberg said. Movado has been working in recent years to build its name recognition in China and "we've already gotten a very good response from Chinese consumers to our product."
The opportunities for the company in China are one reason Marc Lichtenfeld, senior columnist for The Street.com, is bullish on Movado. "The Movado brand itself has enough cachet and might be in a price range that will be very popular with the Chinese," Lichtenfeld said.
Lichtenfeld said one of the things he looks for when he recommends a company is a good track record, and Movado passes that test. "Aside from making good timepieces, they know how to market," he said.
The biggest challenge facing Movado is that by positioning its watches as fashion statements, its brands are at the mercy of fickle fashion trends. A hot brand can go out of fashion in a flash.
But Efraim Grinberg and Movado executives are confident they can stay current with up-to-the minute new designs.
Grinberg said he plans to stay true to his company's name, which means "always on the move" in Esperanto.
The company has just announced a Series 800 sports watch for the Movado brand and recently acquired the licensing rights to produce watches for two hot fashion brands, Juicy Couture and Lacoste.
"That's the fun of the business -- always looking for new challenges, always looking for new opportunities for growth," Grinberg said.
Credit: The Record, Hackensack, N.J.
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