Chris Adams

Why Canada Needs To Fall In Love With Capitalism Again rosssimmonds.com/blog/canadians…

A Watch and Investment Story Part II Nearly eight months ago, I wrote a post about my personal investment in @Bremont, a British watchmaker, in which I became Non-executive Chairman, and along with affiliates, became controlling shareholder in April of this year. My investment was spontaneous, inspired by a positive sales experience and the inspired purchase of a number of watches at the company’s Mayfair, London boutique three years ago. In my introductory post, I promised to provide periodic updates of our progress toward our goal of transforming Bremont into an iconic watch company. Here is our first progress update: New Board I have long believed that the success or failure of a company is largely determined by the board. To that end, I recruited a new board. The directors are: David Berkowitz, Chief Investment Officer, KFO, LLC, the Seth Klarman family office Davide Cerrato, CEO of Bremont, formerly CEO HYT, Managing Director Watch Division Mont Blanc, Head of Marketing, Design and Product Development at Tudor Ian Goldberg, Partner at Venrex, a venture capital firm. Ian is a representative of Bremont’s other major shareholder Andrew Haimovici, my Harvard-educated nephew who previously spent two years working in various roles at Bremont. Francesca Leone, formerly Chief Brand Officer of Michael Kors with previous Global Communication roles at Valentino, Bulgari, and Hermes Martin Parker, formerly Director World Service at Rolex and previously International Customer Service Director at Patek Philippe Larry Pettinelli, who spent more than three decades at Patek Philippe USA, culminating as CEO New Senior Leadership Team We have also recently completed the recruitment of our senior executive team. In addition to our CEO Davide Cerrato, the senior executive team includes: Elen Barnes, Chief Marketing Officer, previously Global Brand Director of Tag Heuer, formerly CMO of Bang & Olufsen Christoph Bippus, Chief Operations Officer, with two decades of experience at Richemont Group, most recently as Associate Director Customer Service for IWC Laura Collins, Chief People Officer, formerly HR Lead Consultant at Willow HR Cos Hayret, Chief Product Development Officer, formerly Watch Development Manager at Montblanc Stephane Pichavant, Chief Commercial Officer, who previously spent 15 years at LVMH Watches and Jewelry, most recently as Global Sales Director for Tag Heuer Kurt Williams, Chief Financial Officer, previously Head of Finance, Swatch Group UK and Country Manager Godiva UK Business Progress The first priority of management was to rationalize the product assortment so as to provide a coherent product offering for our customers while launching an entirely new product collection. Bremont has launched three product lines, namely Terra Nova (Land), Supermarine (Sea), and Altitude (Air), watches which deliver vastly superior quality and functionality compared to similarly priced competitors. Bremont watches are as beautiful as they are rare. Rolex produces more than one million watches per year. Bremont handcrafts fewer than 10,000. When you wear a Bremont, you are part of a small and exclusive club. All Bremont watches are designed, developed, prototyped, assembled, tested, and serviced at our headquarters in Henley-on-Thames known as The Wing. The company has worked to continuously improve its manufacturing capabilities and is now producing superbly crafted, rugged, and reliable watches. One of the company’s most important objectives has been to upgrade product design, quality, durability and reliability. The company now uses 904L steel (also used by Rolex) for all of its steel watches, and has introduced ceramic materials, top quality Swiss movements including a tourbillion built at the company’s Wing HQ, new distinct bracelets for each product line, the highest quality straps, and has dramatically reduced service lead times, now six weeks. The new watches are spectacular and have been recently recognized with multiple industry awards and expert commentary. Here are a few of my favorites (photos below): ALTITUDE MB METEOR STEALTH GREY This is a limited edition of Bremont’s iconic pilot watch, for the first time produced in a sand-blasted F35 stealth grey finish in titanium. TERRA NOVA JUMPING HOUR This is the jumping hour movement in a montre a guichet style, a nod to World War I trench watches, designed to withstand the horrors of war (or an errant swipe on a door frame). SUPERMARINE FULL CERAMIC POLAR WHITE This is a super handsome 500-meter, ceramic watch, with a fabric strap. I wear the green ceramic as one of my daily watches. ALTITUDE SKELETONIZED PERPETUAL CALENDAR GMT This is a spectacularly beautiful, titanium, skeletonized, perpetual calendar, GMT watch. If Pershing Square's year finishes strong, I am getting one of these. This one comes in a limited edition of 50 pieces. I own the non-skeleton version. It is my favorite watch. Awards Bremont was nominated for six awards. Our Jumping Hour Bronze won Best Trend Watch Nominations: WatchPro Awards US (September 10) o Prestige Watch Brand of the Year o Best Pilot Watch (MB Meteor) WatchPro Awards UK (September 30) o British Watch Brand of the Year o Prestige Watch Brand of the Year o Best Pilot Watch (MB Meteor) Winner: Trend Watch: Jumping Hour Bronze Distribution One of Bremont’s weaknesses has been limited physical distribution, particularly outside of the U.K. Management has made significant progress, particularly in the U.S., opening many new doors including The 1916 Company, Ben Bridge (owned by Berkshire Hathaway), Lux Bond & Green, and others. The company is in the process of opening new doors in Italy, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and other locations in Europe. If you are a top watch retailer interested in carrying Bremont, please contact: stephane.pichavant@bremont.com Our only U.S.-owned store, our New York boutique between 52nd and 53rd on Madison Avenue, has seen a more than 50% increase in sales over the last year. Our website at Bremont.com continues to be an important driver of sales. Challenges While the company has made enormous progress over last two years, transforming a brand while the plane is flying, has been an expensive proposition. Great brands are not built overnight. One of the benefits of Bremont now being a family-owned company with a well-capitalized controlling shareholder is that we are not subject to the typical pressures associated with private equity owners or public company shareholders. We are taking the long-term approach in building a generationally valuable company, and are very pleased with our progress to date. Ideas and Input We welcome your ideas, input, and advice. To that end, we will award the best ideas with free watches. We sent a MB Meteor to @JoshBobrowsky for his excellent input. Please reply with your best ideas or email andrew.haimovici@bremont.com. We will read all of the comments and replies. Please also take a look at our Holiday Campaign Video: youtube.com/watch?v=C5aP1R…