Production back at full speed soon
About two thirds of all Swiss
watches are built with Swatch parts: it has a Swiss monopoly on certain
mechanisms and incidentally, a fire raged at a factory that creates these parts. CEO
Nick Hayek has announced that there was only
limited damage, and that within three to four weeks, full production could be
resumed, but nevertheless, quite a few deliveries will be delayed.
Swatch has to deliver its system to competitors in
Switzerland, as it has a dominant market position. It had reached an
agreement in October to lower its forced deliveries to 75 % of the average of
the past few years, with the goal to reach 55 % by 2015.
Swatch Group
had a 2012 turnover of 6.5 billion euro.
The first
half of 2013 saw a 8.7 % increase to 3.4 billion euro, delivering a 620 million
euro net profit.
(Translated by Gary Peeters)
