SWATCH, the world’s top watch company, today said sales were nearly halved in the first half of the year due to coronavirus lockdowns, but it has since returned to profitable operations.

The Swiss-based group, whose brands include Omega, Longines and Tissot, said sales plunged 46.1% in the first half of 2020 from the same period last year to 2.2 billion Swiss francs (RM10 billion).

It registered a net loss of 308 million francs for the period against a profit of 415 million francs for the first six months of 2019.

The sales figures are just below the analyst consensus established by Swiss financial news agency AWP, while the loss far exceeds the 250 million francs expected by experts.

The company said state-imposed lockdowns to slow the spread of Covid-19 had, at times, shut up to 80% of its sales channels, but by last month, its operations were already returning to profit.

“The group’s management is convinced that the sales and profit situation will improve quickly in the coming months, parallel to the further easing of Covid-19 measures” in countries worldwide, it said in an earnings statement.

“A positive operating result is expected for the full year.”

Swatch said launches of new products, as well as lower costs, should help it overcome the first-half loss, and pointed to a strong rebound in areas where lockdowns have been lifted, including double-digit sales growth in China in May and June compared with the same period last year.

The firm definitively shuttered some 260 sales points in the first half of the year and shed 6.5% of staff over the period to around 33,700 employees. – AFP, July 14, 2020.