How a ‘timely’ advertising opportunity led to an international watch business

Selling over a million watches to customers in the US is how Lifeline IT client ‘Timepieces International’ has become a successful global business over the past 25 years.

The company, which has offices outside London and in America, began by advertising watches in top-end US magazines before going on to set up its own mail order catalogue business. Due to the international retail nature of the business, having robust and secure IT systems is crucial and the company has been with Lifeline IT over 15 years. We talk to Timepieces International’s Director of Operations Michael Rampton to find out more about the company.

When is a key sales time for Timepieces International and what are you best-selling items?
Definitely the Christmas period – from November through to January is when we do a lot of sales. We release new product with every catalogue, as well as showcasing bestselling watches and jewellery.

How important is IT to Timepieces International?
Lifeline IT support everything we do – we could not run our business without them. They do everything from back of house support to running our security and storage. If we had a major IT issue and all our systems died or if our building blew up, Lifeline IT could get us fully back up and running in four hours. Knowing this gives us a huge amount of peace of mind and confidence.

Lifeline IT have my absolute trust and I rely on them utterly. I can always reach them when I need them, and their communication is excellent. They have been in integral part of our business since they joined us.

What do you enjoy about your role as Director of Operations?
Definitely the variety – there’s always something interesting to do. It could be solving a specific problem or trying to find ways of doing things better, and Lifeline IT are extremely helpful in supporting this.

What are the challenges the business faces?
I’d say keeping a competitive advantage can be challenging – there are a lot more competitors around so we need to make sure we keep our offer appealing and give great service, so we stand out from the crowd. Making our company more profitable is the bottom line – a lot of businesses focus too much on sales. You can have excellent sales, and even excellent sales growth, but that does not necessarily mean strong profits.