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ZURICH, Switzerland — Swatch Group AG Chief Executive Officer Nick Hayek said full-year sales at the maker of Omega and Tissot timepieces may be near last year's level as the strong franc weighs on exports of Swiss watchmakers.
“It can be that at the end of the year we’re up 1 percent, 2 percent, or minus,” Hayek said at a press conference in Biel on Wednesday. “It also depends on currencies.”
The Swiss watch industry has been struggling with increasingly weak demand in Asia, a strong Swiss franc and competition from Apple Inc.’s smartwatch. The country’s exports of timepieces had their biggest drop since 2009 in the third quarter and are on track for the first full-year decline since a 22 percent slump in 2009.
Analysts expect Swatch’s sales to rise 1 percent in 2015, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
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Hayek said his comment isn’t an official forecast.
By Corinne Gretler; editors: Matthew Boyle, Thomas Mulier, Paul Jarvis.
