Swiss watch group, Swatch, suffered a dramatic fall in sales last year, and is blaming dropping sales from Chinese consumers. Sales across Greater China and Southeast Asia slumped 30%.
WWD is reporting that 2024 net income dropped 75% to 219 million Swiss francs, or around 231 million euros. Revenue was down 12.2% on last year’s figures.
The company said that “deliberately maintaining production capacities and jobs led to a strongly negative operating result.”
However, it pointed to “record sales and market share gains” in the US Japan, India and the Middle East. Its Omega, Longines and Tissot brands all recorded strong growth with Swatch sharing that Tissot sales in the US passed the $100 million mark for the first time. This was coupled with optimistic outlooks for the year ahead.
The company said that it’s not going to cut its workforce nor production facilities as it believes “…practically all markets worldwide are on course for growth, and issues with consumption are only being seen in the Greater China region.” Instead, the company says it is confident of “positive momentum worldwide” with “plenty of new opportunities for the strongly positioned brands.”
