{"id":30106,"date":"2016-07-05T22:42:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T21:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/?p=30106"},"modified":"2016-07-05T16:46:30","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T15:46:30","slug":"hot-100-brand-champions-mark-willingham-business-development-sales-manager-grand-seiko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/hot-100-brand-champions-mark-willingham-business-development-sales-manager-grand-seiko\/","title":{"rendered":"HOT 100 BRAND CHAMPIONS: Mark Willingham, business development sales manager, Grand Seiko"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mark Willingham is relaxed in the knowledge that Seiko is going from strength to strength. \u201cThe brand\u2019s growth in the UK is organic \u2013 we\u2019re not in a hurry. We\u2019re experiencing fantastic results and growth will continue, both internationally and in the UK, through like-minded retailers with the understanding and enthusiasm to tell the brand\u2019s stories,\u201d he says.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And the performance figures only go to prove his point. During Willingham\u2019s tenure as UK Business Development Sales Manager, with responsibility for independent channel sales of both in-house and licensed brands, Seiko has achieved five consecutive years of sales growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring this same period I have also nurtured Seiko\u2019s more premium and luxury watch collections, such as Seiko Spring Drive, the Seiko Ananta collection and the Seiko Astron GPS Solar collection,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>Willingham enjoys the variety of challenges and rewards that come with his role, as well as the opportunity to introduce consumers and retailers to the Seiko collections he is so passionate about. \u201cThere is nothing more rewarding than being able to open people\u2019s eyes to areas of watch making expertise and excellence that they didn\u2019t previously understand, expect or appreciate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next on this list of challenges is the launch of the first UK Seiko boutique in London later this year, with a long-term aim to build a network of outlets across the UK. \u201cSeiko produces so many iconic products that UK consumers have not previously been able to source domestically. Thanks to the new boutique, fans of the brand will be able to see the full scope of Seiko\u2019s amazing product line-up,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n<p>But with all this hard work on the horizon, Willingham feels lucky to have rural Wales on his doorstep. \u201cLiving just a couple of hundred yards from a castle, country park and open countryside means I have plenty of opportunities to wind down and relax.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>IMAGE: Kalory.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Willingham is relaxed in the knowledge that Seiko is going from strength to strength. \u201cThe brand\u2019s growth in the UK is organic \u2013 we\u2019re not in a hurry. We\u2019re experiencing fantastic results and growth will continue, both internationally and in the UK, through like-minded retailers with the understanding and enthusiasm to tell the brand\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false},"categories":[8341,7056,8336,7055],"tags":[3434,1948,2833,8362,8382],"newspack_lstngs_evt":[],"newspack_lstngs_gen":[],"newspack_lstngs_mkt":[],"newspack_lstngs_plc":[],"acf":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"WATCHPRO","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30106"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_lstngs_evt","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_lstngs_evt?post=30106"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_lstngs_gen","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_lstngs_gen?post=30106"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_lstngs_mkt","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_lstngs_mkt?post=30106"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_lstngs_plc","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_lstngs_plc?post=30106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}