Fra Fransk til Engelsk.
* "Serie-Noire" er en typisk bok/roman som handler om krim/spenning... Mørk historie.
Fra: Gregory Pons (Editor Business Montre&joaillerie) 17 nov. 2015.
WHEN WILL THE PRESS IN SWITZERLAND UNDERSTAND?
We hear of a *"serie-noire" to present the many layoffs affecting the recent days, the upstream watchmaking industry (suppliers and subcontractors). This is what we read in LeMatin.ch.
Let's be serious: this is not a *serie-noire, it is a direct consequence - predictable and preventable - of the strategies used by the lousy brands for over two years.
Despite of all warnings detectable here and there (beginning with the warning signals sent by WATCHES & JEWELRY BUSINESS / Médiafacture horological information since 2004 for nearly THIRTY months, despite of the common sense that allowed for a simple deduction about the situation in China, Russia, Europe and elsewhere, the directions of the brands continued to overproduce, (asking their suppliers to increasingly invest in this overproduction) to multiply the shops open around the areas where demand collapsed and to overstock their retailers.
Until the watch industry takes the reality right in the face : this is the case with the current collapse of exports and the worldwide success of the internet-connected watches (which have already costed Tissot 20% of its sales since September .
So they postpone, delay and cancel in urgency the orders since the beginning of the year and subcontractors must close ...
But we must see what is happening on the ground, also in Switzerland: massive layoffs began in subsidiaries of the groups.
Louis Vuitton began to close its stores in China.
The Richemont Group has already closed something like fifty shops in Asia (Which lousy manager has been thinking that they would ever be profitable?) And they shrink the workforces in all markets.
Factories of ETA Swatch Group are already operating at low speed .
Rolex has reduced its workforce by cutting down on temporary contracts, temporary workers and some French citizens from the border...
As the bulk of layoffs is not happening in Switzerland, no one tries to see beyond the tip of his nose and we imagine that it is a "*serie-noire".
No, it is the crisis!
It is more serious than in 2008 (there will be no Chinese engine to boost growth in double digits), more ruthless for small workshops and small brands, more profound because it is a societal crisis.
And this crisis is just beginning ...