Movado sales slip in weak watch market

New from Movado is Parlee, a line of automatic chronographs limited to 250 and named for the racing bike. Powered by the ETA caliber A07, the 46mm watch comes with a green, orange, blue or white dial. A portion of its sales benefit World BiParamus, N.J.--Slow overall watch sales and poor sell-through on its flagship brand overseas led to a disappointing third quarter for the Movado Group Inc.

The company reported its final results for the third quarter ended Oct. 31 on Tuesday.

Net sales were down 1 percent year-over-year from $189.7 million to $188.6 million. Net income in the third quarter totaled $22.2 million, down slightly from $23.0 million in the third quarter of last year.

In a statement released earlier in the month, Movado Chairman and CEO Efraim Grinberg said he was “disappointed” in the company’s third quarter performance.

He said he expects this trend to continue into the fourth quarter, leading the company to downgrade its forecast for the fiscal year. Movado has projected that sales will increase only 1 to 2 percent, reaching the range of $585 to $590 million.

Grinberg said sales of Movado-brand watches were strong in the United States while sales of its licensed brands “trended positively,” though Rick Coté, vice chairman and chief operating officer, noted that both Lacoste and Scuderia Ferrari watches underperformed.

Also hurting the company were poor international sales of the Movado brand and the fact that the retailer inventory build portion of its Movado/ESQ reallocation strategy “did not fully materialize,” Coté said.

In March, the retailer announced plans to reallocate the case space once afforded the ESQ brand by retailers to “more productive” watches, a plan that apparently did not quite pan out for the company. Grinberg noted in his remarks that, “The overall watch category is experiencing slower growth and retailers are focusing on driving improved productivity.”

Based in Paramus, N.J., Movado Group Inc. designs, sources and distributes Movado brand watches as well as Ebel, Concord, ESQ Movado, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture, Lacoste and Scuderia Ferrari watches worldwide. It also operates Movado stores in the United States.