The Breitling Watch Source Forums

With all the watch companies going around, many of which dont seem to have any presence at all in some countries, how would someone or a group of individuals getting together go about trying to form an agreement with them to become there Agent in your home country? What stuff would be involved? Anyone have any knowledge of this at all?

_________________
Breitling Chronomat BO1 Riviera Blue Dial Stainless Steel Case and Pilot Bracelet

Assuming that we are talking about an established brand, and a retail set up, then the brand is looking for:

Financial stability / established business / good management / etc
A market that is in need of an AD
A location that is in keeping with the image - physical location, location relative to other similar retailers, store layout and design, etc
Appropriate other brands covered by the retailer - if watches only then where will the brand sit in that mix, if jewellers then what brands are carried, etc

The dealer agreement also enforces a lot of requirements on the retailer:

Number and type of pieces that have to be kept in stock and number and type of display units
Sales numbers
Training requirements
If they also want to be a maintenance centre then there are requirements for training, certification and equipment.

Im more interested in the distributor rather than AD role- type of like an Agent type role, that can set up the systems, but let the jewellers do the selling.

_________________
Breitling Chronomat BO1 Riviera Blue Dial Stainless Steel Case and Pilot Bracelet

I'm not sure that there is a single model. Some companies own their distributor - Breitling with BUSA and BUK for example, in other cases (generally smaller markets) the distributor is usually part of the watch business - in Canada for Breitling it's a large watch retial chain (and the owner also owns distribution for Greece), but Zenith in Canada uses the US distributor to cover the market.

Generally speaking I think most brands will start with in house distribution through a central location (North America, Europe, etc) and then add national distributors as business grows wither through a direct presence or a relationship with a large retailer.