Nobody at this year’s Baselworld could have missed the enormous Barbour Timewear stand that brought a little piece of the British countryside to the epicentre of the Swiss watch industry.
Masterminding that manoeuvre was Simon Gilham, who was promoted to managing director of Zeon Ltd. just weeks after returning from the trade show.
“I am ecstatic to be able to announce that I have recently been appointed as the new managing director of Zeon. It is incredibly gratifying to see my hard work, particularly over this past year of transition, recognised,” he says.
Bagging the Barbour Timewear license agreement was a great coup for Zeon. “We held a launch for the collection at Baselworld and it was so well received that I am still reeling from the positive response,” Simon adds.
Barbour gallops into a stable that includes licensed watches from Braun, Vivienne Westwood and Penguin, as well as its owned brand Ingersoll, which is now being sold in over 50 countries. That line up will grow in the coming year when an acquisition that Simon is currently negotiating is finalised. “One of the things I am hugely proud of hasn’t been officially announced yet: I have just overseen the acquisition of a new own label brand. The leg work has been done over the past few months and we’ll be launching over the next year or so. Watch this space,” he teases.
Simon is keen to pay tribute to his current boss (and 2013 Hot 100 Power Player) Richard Tibber. “Richard has served well at the helm of the company for many years. He has played an essential part in supporting my vision for the future of Zeon, and we have all worked together over the past year to begin to lay this fundamental groundwork for our long term plans,” he says.
