News Taken over last year by the Italian jeweller Bulgari, both Joux Valley brands will now be supporting the group's leading brand.
Just over a year ago Bulgari bought out, to general surprise, Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta from the Singapore based firm The Hour Glass. On 22 November, during a meeting with the press in Le Sentier in the workshops where the watches of both brands are produced (see photos), the Italian group, in the guise of its Chief Executive Officer Francesco Trapani, revealed the full details of this takeover.
Bulgari saw in the takeover of Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta the opportunity to acquire two brands with a high potential for development, while at the same time securing their know-how in the production of large complications. As for future policy, it is already laid out: the contemporary styling of the Bulgari brand will be supported by the classic lines of Daniel Roth (photo on the right, a perpetual calendar model) and by the avant-garde approach of Gérald Genta. A triptych that will require the formulation of a totally new concept for the latter brand, which will be unveiled in the spring of 2003. Gérald Genta will then be positioned in the exclusive niche products segment. Its timepieces will embody the extravagance of its origins, with unexpected combinations of materials and an innovative design.
Distributed respectively by around 100 and 200 points of sale in international markets, Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta today produce slightly more than 6,000 timepieces each year, corresponding to a two-figure increase over last year Francesco Trapani declined to be more precise on this point. In view of the massive investments made by the Italian group, the breakeven point will not be reached this year, or in 2002, but probably in 2003. In terms of markets, the takeover by Bulgari opened up in particular the United States to the two Joux Valley brands, which are also planning to strengthen their presence in Europe while consolidating their strong positions in Asia and the Middle East.
In the longer term, production of a basic movement for all three brands is not excluded following the delivery problems they have been experiencing for top-of-the-range calibres. A challenge that the 70 employees of Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta (35 at Le Sentier for development and production, the same number in Geneva in the dispatch and marketing departments) are, it seems, ready to take up.
December 06, 2001
