Movado's Luxury Brand Strategy in China (MOV 2Q06 Conf Call Quotes)

Foreign luxury companies are employing a variety of strategies for gaining traction in China. Jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co (ticker: TIF) is opening retail stores while premium eyeglass frame and sunglass retailer Luxottica (ticker: LUX) recently acquired an existing store chain in Beijing. What about premium watch retailer Movado Group (ticker: MOV)? Key quotes from management's Q2 2006 earnings results conference call

....China is a strategic growth market for our Movado brand. We're significantly increasing our resources in this country to support our plan of developing Movado into a major accessible luxury brand sought by the Chinese consumer.

....we're not planning on opening any boutiques in China at the present time. I think what we have talked about is the shop-in-shops, which are Movado corners in department stores and jewelry stores, but where we sell only Movado watches. We have been successful in doing that over the last several years. Today I believe we have approximately 50 Movado shop-in-shops. And China for us is a long-term growth market and investment market for the Movado brand. And we've seen nice growth, but again off a very small base.

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)

MOV chart.