Swatch Group chief executive Nick Hayek told reporters waiting outside the watch company’s AGM in Switzerland yesterday that he expects his company to deliver high single- or double-digit sales growth this year.
Hayek said he expects the watch group to benefit from an “exploding” Chinese market where it is currently achieveing growth of 50% to 70%, and strong demand for product in the mid to low price ranges, according to a report by The Montreal Gazette.
He told reporters: “We are trying to beat the 8 billion Swiss franc mark this year, which would translate into another record year.”
While the Swatch Group boss was bullish about prospects for the year he admitted that the growth rates it is currently experiencing would ultimately be finite. “You cannot make a projection that an industry is growing year by year by 20% or 30%, that’s an unhealthy situation,” he said.
At the AGM in Biel shareholders voted to discharge all members of the board of directors for the financial year 2011. It also voted to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers as statutory auditor for another year.
