MARC ROM’S first day at his father’s business left no-one in doubt about where the son ranked in the hierarchy: right at the bottom, cleaning out the bins. “Marc has worked his way up,” says Steven Rom, who founded Avstev Group in Sydney in 1999 as the regional distributor for Swiss watchmaker Raymond Weil. “I never gave him any titles.” Marc was just 21 and had no outside experience, “whereas I’d been in business for 20-plus years in South Africa”, says Steven. He was prepared to give his son a start but not a free ride. As the company grew – it’s now Australasia’s largest privately own...

How One Small Family Business Is Tapping Into The Luxury Watch Market In an age of discount online sites and consumers riding the bargain bandwagon, it may seem a tough gig to sell a $1.5 million Swiss watch. But Steve Rom, who co-founded his small family business The AVSTEV Group with his son Marc, says being a successful player in the luxury business isn’t as hard as you might think. “It’s a competitive industry, but luxury is not a tough sell in Australia,” he told The Huffington Post Australia. “There are the three giants and then there’s us. We don’t want to compete with them -- we ar...