The largest maker of components for Swiss watches, the Swatch Group AG, had announced its annual revenue would fall short of the CHF9 billion or USD10.1 billion. This was attributed to unfavorable currency fluctuations.
The sales growth of the company would be nearer to 10% as compared to just 5% for 2013. According to Swatch CEO Nick Hayek, the company would be 'flirting' with the CHF9 billion sales level but currencies have 'not cooperated'.
He added, "We still do very good results, but exchange rates are unfortunately not helping us, that's all. Making 9 billion with these exchange rates will be difficult." Hayek said he is very 'optimistic' for 2014 and if currency fluctuations ease off, he is expecting double digit growth.
Swatch declined by 3.8% to CHF564 in Zurich trading. That was the steepest decline since June 20. At late afternoon trading, stock shares fell by 1.8%.
In other news, Swatch received regulatory authority to cut back on its deliveries of timepiece mechanisms to its competitors. This may cause some companies to see their inventories fall.
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