Time is right for watches firm to grow

A WATCH business set up by a Dundee entrepreneur three years ago with just £6,000 is preparing to launch a global retail operation as the next phase of its vertiginous expansion.

So far Breo’s minimalist digital watches have predominantly been sold through airline onboard duty-free shops, but founder Rob Morrison, 32, is now planning a major assault on the high street.

He is already using the success of the company’s original product as the basis for a wider fashion business selling a range of accessories.

“We are going to harness Breo to build a long-term brand, not a one-hit wonder,” the young entrepreneur told Scotland on Sunday.

Morrison is working on designs for a distinctive branded store which he hopes to open in major UK cities as well as Hong Kong next year.

Already employing 35 people, Breo has brought the watch industry back to Dundee, albeit on a much smaller scale than the Timex Electronics Corporation, whose factory once employed 5,000 people in the city but closed in 1993.

Breo’s products are made in Asia, but the design and marketing work takes place in Scotland.

Morrison founded the company in 2008 to market a distinctive digital watch he had seen as a prototype in Dubai. The “Roam” first proved popular with runners and triathletes, and Morrison later won orders from online retailer Play.com and department store chain John Lewis.

In a further breakthrough, he persuaded airlines to stock the Roam in their onboard duty-free shops. Much cheaper than the products normally touted down aircraft aisles, the £10 watch proved a timely hit with cash-strapped passengers looking for an unusual gift.

To date, Breo has sold 4.5 million of the brightly coloured watches, allowing the company to design a range of accessories around a similar fashion theme.

Morrison, who left school at 15 and became a joiner before trying his hand in a number of business ventures, says he has never had a bank facility for Breo. The company’s three-year expansion to a turnover of around £8 million has been financed entirely from cash flow.

Aware of his lack of experience running a company of that size, Morrison has brought in an older management team, and is concentrating his energies on building the brand and designing the boutiques.

“I’m the guy who comes up with the ideas,” he says.

The businessman hopes to open his first store in the second quarter of next year, and to have several by Christmas 2012. Breo already has sales offices targeting its most promising markets, including London and Hong Kong.

Morrison says the company slowed its growth rate this year to concentrate on developing new products and breaking into different markets, but added: “With the management in place, and the new sales positions and products, we are looking to ramp up by 50 per cent in the next financial year.”

That would make for a turnover of around £12m. Morrison said the company could beat that figure by opening its own stores and taking on staff at a faster rate, but he is “trying to stay grounded”.