Sincere Watch, the exclusive distributor of Franck Muller watches in China, Hong Kong, Macau and South Korea, has chalked up another loss, but it was sharpy down on the prior year.
The company finished the 2017 financial year, HK$158.9 million in the red, but with fewer impairments this year’s loss was contained to $59.97 million. Sales were up 8.5 per cent to $387 million.
Lower rents for the company’s 10 self-managed boutiques reduced overheads by 2.8 per cent, but staffing costs and “premise expenses” fuelled a 19.9 per cent increase in general overheads.
Sincere Watch says it continues to look for new retail points of sale throughout the region. A new store was added in Korea and new points of sale in Hong Kong through DFS Group, Elegant Watch & Jewellery, King Fook Jewellery Group and Prince Jewellery & Watch.
Besides Franck Muller, Sincere Watch represents five other luxury brands – de Grisogono, Custos, Pierre Kunz, European Company Watch and Backes & Strauss.
The company finished the year with 49 retail points of sale and 11 boutiques, making a total of 60, a net drop of six from the previous year. Other than the 10 boutiques run by the group, the remaining 50 watch retail outlets in the region are run by 20 independent watch dealers.
Revenue in Hong Kong, the group’s largest market accounting for 55.3 per cent of sales, rose 6.1 per cent. Sales in Mainland China and Macau rose 14.9 per cent and sales in Taiwan, Singapore and Korea fell 5.7 per cent. But the company said that business segment remained profitable.
