Switzerland’s Swatch Group is set to create up to 1,500 jobs in the country as it boosts production to meet demand, its head has told the daily Le Temps newspaper.
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Nick Hayek also said the world’s largest watchmaking concern was aiming for record sales of more than SFr7 billion ($7.5 billion) this year.
In an interview published on Tuesday, Hayek said that January had been the fourth-best month in the group’s history and spoke of an “incredible dynamism”.
Annual sales at high-end Omega would approach SFr3 billion “quite rapidly” while they would “soon” break the SFr1 billion barrier at Breguet, Longines, Tissot and Swatch itself.
Hayek added that the group, which has its headquarters in Biel, was well on its way to reaching annual sales of SFr10 billion but not in 2011 or 2012.
The Swatch Group employed an extra 1,600 people around the globe in 2010, a year in which it recorded sales of SFr6.46 billion and a net profit of just over SFr1 billion.
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