Sputnik

Swatch expands shipping company with new building

Swatch Group has bought new premises in Biel for its final assembly and distribution company Distico.

Distico fits straps to a number of Swatch Group brand watches before packaging and shipping them worldwide. Currently based in Ticino, the company has been looking for new premises for some time and has even been working on a new building project in situ since 2010.

Approval for the expansion project in Ticino had been expected later this year but the new building would not have been completed until 2019 at the earliest.

But now the company has purchased the 22,000 m² premises of the liquidated Sputnik Engineering firm in Biel, some 260km away, and will begin moving in from September 1. The move will create 160 new jobs in Biel.

Distico has stated that those employees unable to make the move from Ticino to Biel will be offered alternative employment at Swatch Group’s other Ticino-based subsidiaries Assemti SA, The Swatch Group Assembly SA and Diantus Watch SA.

James Buttery

Editor of WatchPro, the WatchPro Hot 100 and The Luxury Report.

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