Corum to expand base in India with Ethos Ltd

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Dec 15, 2016

 
Luxury Swiss watch brand Montres Corum Sàrl has partnered with Ethos Limited for exclusively retailing Corum watches in India.

As part of its plan to strengthen its presence in India and to rebuild its distribution network, hence boosting its revenue, Corum has teamed up with Ethos Limited.

 “'Til now, we were selling watches independently in India, through our own subsidiary. The operational cost was high and India was contributing just 1-2% to our global revenue. So we decided to shut down our subsidiary and redefine and rebuild our distribution network here,” said Jacques-Alain Vuille, executive vice-president at Corum, in a Mint report.

Corum, owned by China Haidian Holdings Limited group, has been operating in India since the 1980s. The company plans to close 2016-17 at 48 million Swiss francs in revenue, about 3 million Swiss francs up from its annual revenue targets. Vuille added that with the distribution changes, the Indian market is expected to contribute 5-10℅ to the global turnover of the company over the next few years.
 
“Corum has a wonderful story and a wonderful craftsmanship, which needs to be communicated across the country. We will be focusing on the social media campaigns to communicate the product,” said Pranav Saboo, co-founder at Ethos Watch Studios. Ethos, run by watch components supplier KDDL, is the authorized retailer of 61 luxury watch brands in India including Rolex, Omega and Rado, operating 45 premium stores in 14 cities. Corum lines are currently sold at four of Ethos outlets across four cities. Over the next 18 months, the retailer plans to expand the offering to 12 stores across ten cities, and plans to open another 25-30 stores, taking the total store count to 70 by 2020.
 
Earlier this month, Ethos had teamed up with Titan Co. Ltd to relaunch the 279-year-old Swiss watch brand Favre Leuba in India.