Martin Bachmann
Martin Bachmann has been with the Maurice Lacroix brand for more than nine years and is now in his second year as a leader, having been appointed to the helm of the company after the departure of former CEO, Philippe Merk, who is now with Audemars Piguet.
”This is an extremely interesting period to take over the reins of a company because of the economic context we’re navigating through now. Each company knows its challenges and we will have to find our own solutions to successfully overcome this period,” Martin Bachmann believes.
Maurice Lacroix, Bachmann says, is a relatively young brand, created in 1975. “On the other hand, it is certainly a good thing, because unlike those brands from the 18th or 19th century, we have a certain freedom of expression, a greater flexibility and we are not forced to always revisit our archives to reinvent the same old watches with a new twist,” Maurice Lacroix says. ‘Which does not rule out the integration in the design and manufacturing process of the old techniques of the Swiss industry, for which we have the utmost respect.”
As far as the crisis is concerned, the Maurice Lacroix official admits that sales are not going as well as they did in the previous years, “a reality that affects all brands”, but says that the mid-luxury segment on which most of the brand’s products are positioned is far from being the worst affected. “They say that top products will not suffer because their buyers have and will always have money, regardless of the economic situation. Yet I’ve noticed it’s different in reality, because, regardless of how much money they might have, people still feel the need not to splurge. I can give you a concrete example: recently a client at one of our dealers initially wanted to buy a 15,000 CHF watch but ended up choosing an 8,000 CHF Maurice Lacroix watch.” Bachmann feels people are now very determined to pick only genuine, reliable and safe values, over novelty or ostentation.
Maurice Lacroix’s strategy entails adjusting to the new reality. “We have to recalibrate our expectations – not make plans as if we were still in 2007 or 2008. We also must continue to innovate, because in difficult times it takes new products to win over customers. We also need to adjust our offer to the clients’ expectations. Maybe we’ll have fewer so-called ‘manufacture watches’, which are expensive and complicated, for a while and focus on more commercial timepieces, to reach more price segments. We have to meet the consumer halfway.”
“Brands have to focus now, to clearly identify their role and niche, because the market dictates at this time,” Martin Bachmann says.
