Richemont to acquire Watchfinder
Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods group, is to acquire the pre-owned premium watch specialist Watchfinder.co.uk.
Established in 2002, Watchfinder has grown organically under the stewardship of co-founder Stuart Hennell with the aim of becoming the leading platform for researching, buying and selling premium pre-owned watches, both online and through its seven boutiques.
Employing 200 employees wordwide, Watchfinder also operates a customer service centre.
Johann Rupert, chairman of Richemont, said: “We believe there are substantial opportunities to help grow the company further. Today, Watchfinder operates both as an ‘online’ and ‘offline’ business in a complementary, growing, and still relatively unstructured segment of the industry.”
The transaction is expected to close this summer and will have no material impact on Richemont’s consolidated net assets or operating result for the year ending 31 March 2019.
Rupert added: “Together with Yoox Net-A-Porter and our stake in Dufry, the acquisition of Watchfinder is another step in Richemont’s strategy. It will enable us to better serve the sophisticated needs of a discerning clientele.”
