The history of the brand

Compared to other Swiss watch manufacturers, the Maurice Lacroix brand is a young player in the highly competitive watch market. The brand was founded in 1975 by a Swiss company that initially distributed various products, then represented numerous well-known Swiss watch brands before deciding to set up its own watchmaking company. In 1961, it bought a watch manufacture in the town of Saignelégier in the Jura, thus laying the foundations for the creation of Maurice Lacroix. Since then, the brand has gradually developed into an independent watch manufacturer with a good reputation. In 1990, the company achieved its first major success with the launch of the "Calypso" collection, which helped the brand, which until then had been considered an insider tip by retailers, to become better known.

In 2014, the previous Marketing Director, Stéphane Waser, was appointed CEO. The new "Aikon" collection, which stands for affordable luxury with technical excellence, was launched with the hope of strengthening the brand. The collection led to a new brand positioning. The brand rebranded itself as more casual and hip and appealed to a younger target audience, which in turn suited the Asian markets perfectly, where consumers are younger than in Western markets. Maurice Lacroix currently has five collections, of which the "Aikon" is still the most popular. In 2019, one of these models even won the Red Dot Design Award.

Challenges in China

Maurice Lacroix entered the Chinese market at the end of the 1990s, first establishing an office in Hong Kong and then a subsidiary in Shanghai. Business and distribution in China were outsourced to a local supplier. In 2008, Maurice Lacroix sold its distribution rights for Asia to the market expansion service provider DKSH, which became the largest shareholder in 2011. At that time, there was a gold-rush atmosphere among watch manufacturers in the Chinese market and the brand enjoyed great success in China until 2014. But then sales figures began to decline. On the one hand, luxury goods were affected by the new gift-giving rules introduced by the Chinese government in its fight against corruption and by a new luxury tax; on the other hand, the country's economy declined and the watch market also shrank. Many sales outlets had to be closed and the sale of watches shifted mainly to the online business. However, after four years of online-only sales, the distributor rebuilt a physical network, which the brand hoped would help boost sales in China. "Consumers need to be able to see and touch a premium product like a luxury watch before they buy it," says Stéphane Waser.

What's next?

Around 16 million Swiss watches are exported every year - half of them to Asia (source). The opportunities for successful business activity in Asia therefore exist. But the question remains: How much of its resources should a small player like Maurice Lacroix, which has relatively limited marketing resources compared to its much larger competitors, allocate to the Chinese market and how much to the more established markets, which admittedly have far less growth potential? And given the ever-growing purchasing power in China, should it push the brand up the price range by offering more expensive watches?

The case of Maurice Lacroix offers students the opportunity to address a typical management challenge faced by SMEs: How can limited resources be used to support business growth in general and expansion in the Chinese market, which is highly competitive in the luxury watch sector, in particular?

More information

Case studies like these are developed by the Europe-Asia Case Study Center. Since 2014, the Case Study Center has been developing real-life case studies with a clear focus on European and Swiss-Asian management challenges. This research provides students and lecturers with helpful impulses and information about different business models and challenges faced by Swiss and Asian companies.

The entire case study can be downloaded here.

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