Swatch Buying Tokyo Building To Raise Profile In Japan

The world's largest watchmaker Swatch is aiming to raise its profile in the Japanese market by buying head office and sales space in a key shopping district in Tokyo. Swatch expects the building to be ready by 2006.

 

Swatch, which owns Omega, Rado and Tissot watches, said the building in the up-market Ginza district would house boutiques selling its products and increase its presence in the all-important Japanese luxury goods market.

Swatch’s Japanese sales account for around eight percent of group revenues, which last year amounted to almost 4 billion Swiss francs ($3.24 billion). Japanese sales, by comparison, account for around 20 percent of total sales at rival Swiss luxury goods maker Richemont.

Analysts, noting that Swatch is considerably underrepresented in the Japanese market compared to its competitors, said the watchmaker is aiming to double sales in Japan in next three to five years.

Japan is the third most important market for Swiss watch exporters after the United States and Hong Kong, accounting for around one billion Swiss francs ($810 million) of business in 2003, or around 10 percent of total Swiss watch exports.

Demand for prestigious watches and luxury goods in general were hit hard last year, especially in Asia, by the downturn in the travel industry caused by war in Iraq and the SARS virus.