Earlier this week Swatch announced it was to fast-track plans to shut stores definitively in Hong Kong.
This announcement came as the loss in sales in the six months through June was announced as having plummeted 43 per cent due to the impact of Covid-19.
In a break with its strategy during previous crises such as the 2009 financial downturn, Swatch is leaning more on slashing jobs, a signal that this year is different. CEO Nick Hayek has said that during hard times, the problem with cutting jobs is it’s difficult to find qualified staff when the market rebounds.
“Winston Churchill said ‘never waste a good crisis’, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do, especially in the second half of the year,” Hayek said in prepared video remarks.
The CEO said Swatch expects a profit this year as countries ease lockdown measures that had led to shuttered shops and travel bans amid the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s first-half operating loss of US$347M was twice as big as analysts expected. In the second half, Swatch plans to introduce new products, including a Tissot smartwatch.
