Walter von Känel, president of Switzerland’s Longines Watch Co., has arrived in the country for the first time to inaugurate a flagship boutique in Hanoi City after 15 years of the Swiss watch maker’s presence in the country.
Longines expands business in Vietnam
By Van Oanh in Hanoi
Walter von Känel, president of Switzerland’s Longines Watch Co., has arrived in the country for the first time to inaugurate a flagship boutique in Hanoi City after 15 years of the Swiss watch maker’s presence in the country.
The boutique covers 153 square meters of the Pacific Place Building in the capital city while other Longines flagship boutiques around the world are 70% smaller. Longines will boost investment in Vietnam, a potential market with an increasing demand for luxury shopping, while other regional markets of Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia have reached saturation, von Känel said.
Despite the imitation problem, Longines has reached over VND30 billion in turnover in Vietnam in each of the last several years, said Pham Thi Lan, director of Longines’ monopoly distributor Hong Bang. The flagship boutique will help boost Longines’ turnover, she said.
Longines maintains around ten showrooms throughout the country with Hanoi and HCMC being major markets.