Company:Watches of Switzerland
 | |
| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| |
| Industry | Jewelry |
| Founded | 1924 |
| Headquarters | Braunstone, England, UK |
Key people | Dennis Millard, (chairman) Brian Duffy, (CEO) |
| Revenue |  £1,238.0 million (2022)[1] |
| £143.7 million (2022)[1] | |
| £101.0 million (2022)[1] | |
| Website | www www |
Watches of Switzerland is a British retailer of Swiss watches, with 16 stores in the United Kingdom .[2] The company headquarters is in Braunstone, England.[3] It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
History
Watches of Switzerland was founded in Ludgate Hill in 1924.[4] During the late 1970s Theo Paphitis, the entrepreneur, worked as a sales assistant at the Bond Street Watches of Switzerland store in London.[5]
The business was acquired by Ratners in 1988[6] but then sold on to Asprey in the early 1990s.[7] The company was the subject of a management buyout from Asprey in 1998.[8][9] It was then acquired, along with Mappin & Webb, by Baugur Group in November 2005.[8] It was then bought by Landsbanki in 2009 before coming under the control of Apollo Global Management in 2013.[4] The company was briefly known as Aurum Holdings before re-branding itself as Watches of Switzerland in advance of an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in May 2019.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Annual Report 2022". Watches of Switzerland Group. https://www.thewosgroupplc.com/media/tlthxed4/watches-of-switzerland-group-plc-annual-report-2022.pdf.
- ↑ "Our Showrooms". https://www.watches-of-switzerland.co.uk/our-showrooms/.
- ↑ "Contact Us / Watches of Switzerland". http://www.watches-of-switzerland.co.uk/contact-us/.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Watches of Switzerland starts clock on London IPO plan". Evening Standard. 2 May 2019. https://www.standard.co.uk/business/watches-of-switzerland-starts-clock-on-london-ipo-plan-a4132381.html.
- ↑ "Enter the Dragon of balls, rubber and lingerie". This is London. 24 October 2007. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23417900-details/Enter+the+Dragon+of+balls,+rubber+and+lingerie/article.do.
- ↑ Haapalainen, Valérie; Skog, Nan (1 February 2011). "Growth Strategies of Multinational Companies: the Jewelry Industry". p. 53. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/26219/haapalainen_valerie_skog_nan.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
- ↑ "Crown jewellers sold off for a princely pounds 250m". The Independent. 4 November 1995. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/crown-jewellers-sold-off-for-a-princely-pounds-250m-1537165.html.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Baugur buys £30m Mappin & Webb". The Telegraph. 13 November 2005. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2925862/Baugur-buys-30m-Mappin-and-Webb.html.
- ↑ "Royal jeweller sells two chains". BBC. 24 December 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/241847.stm.
 |  |
