When a rumour reached me in 2020 that Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin were for sale, I asked Patrick Pruniaux, CEO for both brands whether it was true.
Not only would he not answer the question, his PR team asked me to edit out the question from a Zoom call we had recorded.
Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin are both owned by Kering, home to the mighty Gucci, and felt a little stranded between the fashion empire and the premier league of Swiss watchmakers.
Ulysse Nardin was ranked number 45 among Swiss competitors in 2020 with turnover of CHF 40 million. Girard-Perregaux didn’t make it into the top 50, which required turnover of over CHF 26 million.
Independent watch makers operating outside the publicly traded LVMH, Swatch and Richemont groups have outperformed their competitors over recent years.
Privately-owned Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille and Breitling are all top 10 Swiss brands, according to investment bank Morgan Stanley.
It is not a complete surprise, therefore, that Kering has sold its entire stake in Sowind Group SA, which owns Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin, to its management team headed by Mr Pruniaux.
The sale is in line with Kering’s strategy, giving priority to the brands with the potential to become sizable assets within the group, and to which it can provide decisive support over time, a statement announcing the deal describes.
The value of the sale has not been disclosed, but publicly traded Kering says its financial impact will be reported in the accounts closed on December 31, 2021.
The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the first half of 2022,” the company adds.
Kering says it has supported Mr Pruniaux’s efforts since he became CEO of Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin, although the support did not save the jobs of one quarter of the watchmakers’ 400 employees during the first year of the pandemic.
The first half of 2020 was “heavily impacted by a sharp contraction in their market,” according to a financial report from Kering at the time. “This was even more the case for Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin given that the global watches market has been fragile for several years now and contracted sharply in the first half of 2020,” the group’s H1 2020 financial statement added.
Mr Pruniaux insists that Kering’s support and investment has laid sound foundations for growth. “We have the right setup and resources to implement a plan capable of ensuring the long-term development of both brands,” he says.
