Movado founder to retire in 2009

PARAMUS, N.J. Movado Group announced that company founder Gedalio Grinberg plans to retire as chairman of the board at the end of fiscal 2009 and will remain on the board with the title of founder and chairman emeritus. Efraim Grinberg, who joined the company in 1980, will be named chairman and will also continue to serve as president and ceo.

Gedalio Grinberg, Chairman of Movado Group, stated, "I'm proud of all that our company has accomplished with the help of our employees and the confidence of our investors. After establishing a $30 million plus luxury watch business as a distributor in North America with two brands, our company strategically shifted its focus onto designing, manufacturing and distributing our own brands and as a licensee -- acquiring Concord in 1970, reviving an icon of modernism in Movado, launching ESQ in 1993, expanding into the licensed watch category, and most recently acquiring Ebel."