2006 General Meeting Of The FH - An Industry Full Of Confidence

After passing the twelve billion franc mark in 2005, Swiss watch exports are expected to exceed 13 billion this year. Counterfeiting remains a major concern.

Nothing stands in the way of Swiss watch manufacturers. After suffering understandable setbacks in 2002 and 2003 in the wake of the attacks of 11 September 2001, exports are well and truly back on the rails of growth – in two digits if you please! – beating record after record in 2004 and 2005. And everything indicates that 2006 will keep pace with this trend (the first five months of the year recorded an increase of 11.5% to 5.1 billion francs). This in essence was the message conveyed by Jean-Daniel Pasche, president of the Federation of Swiss Watch Manufacturers, at the general meeting held on 29 June this year at the Hôtel Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne. The 13 billion franc threshold should therefore logically be achieved, or even exceeded, this year – to do so, growth of 5% is all that is required, unless of course exogenous factors, such as a sharp fall of the dollar or major geopolitical events, happen to spoil the party.

However, as pointed out by the president of the FH, this highly enviable economic situation should not conceal the threats hanging over the industry. The most important of these remains counterfeiting, an unfortunately recurrent problem being tackled by the FH head on, particularly through the actions of its Anti-counterfeiting Group. Last year, the latter was particularly active in Latin America, where four operations in Paraguay, one in Mexico and one in Brazil made it possible to remove 130,000 copies from the market.

"The operation carried out during the night of 9 August in warehouses close to the important market of Tepito in Mexico mobilised 230 police officers to seal off the district. Indeed, intervention during the day could have degenerated into out-and-out street fighting, as has been the case in the past. Meanwhile, action taken against the "25 De Março" shopping centre in Sao Paolo, which took place on 25 November, resulted in the arrest of 14 Chinese nationals. Operations carried out in Paraguay for their part all targeted the town of Ciudad del Este, a free zone which represents the hard core of counterfeiting in Latin America. These ended with the seizure of nearly 100,000 fake watches and 250,000 spare parts. The FH purposely launched consecutive operations, at regular intervals, in order to exert pressure on traders and the authorities," remarked Jean-Daniel Pasche.

However the FH has also been active in other regions. Its Hong Kong centre, in collaboration with the Selective Trademark Union, has organised the seizure of hundreds of thousands of copies, mainly in China and Thailand. The FH has also supervised the seizure of several thousand pieces on markets in Spain, in Madrid, Valence, La Palmas and Tenerife. And to combat this scourge, it is not content simply to launch counter measures, but also regularly trains customs officials, who are in the front line in the campaign, and speaks out publicly against counterfeiting through conferences, articles and radio or TV broadcasts, thereby putting consumers on their guard against the damaging effects of this criminal activity.

Regarding the purely statutory part of the meeting, delegates approved the annual report and 2005 accounts, and also the scale of contributions for 2007, which remains unchanged. The meeting also gave a vote of confidence to Jean-Daniel Pasche, who was re-elected as president for a further period of three years, and to Fiduco, who were retained as auditors for a one year term. Meanwhile, for the period 2006-2009, the Board will be composed of the following 20 members with, in parenthesis, their alternate (respective corporate affiliations are not mentioned if they are the same as that of the incumbent): Jean-Pierre Aebischer, Manufacture des montres Rolex (Alberto Tellan); Claude Peny, Patek Philippe (François Claude Tissot, Chopard); Denis Bolzli, Aero Watch (Emile Charrotton, Société anonyme de fabricants suisses d'horlogerie); Franco Cologni, Richemont International (vacant); Jacques J. Duchêne, Rolex (Ulrik von Barnekow); Jean-Paul Girardin, Breitling (Dominique Stoll); Hannes Pantli, IWC (vacant); Albert Kaufmann, Richemont International (Cédric Bossert); Marc Küffer, Roventa-Henex (Heinz Kulli, Multitime); Hans-Peter Rentsch, Swatch Group (Jacques-Alain Voirol); Roland Streule, Rado (Hans-Rudolf Sutter); Jean-Christophe Babin, TAG Heuer (Thierry Huron); Roland Bloch, Swatch Group (Edgar Geiser); Kaspar Glatthard, ETA (vacant); Pierre-André Bühler, Nivarox-FAR (Christian Feuvrier); Pierre-Alain Storrer, Coloral (Philippe Bauer, Groupement des fabricants d'aiguilles); Pascal Queloz, Oréade (Jean-L. Guillod, Guillod Gunther); Philippe Membrez, Simon & Membrez (Pierre Huguenin, Union suisse pour l'habillage de la montre); Claude Calderari, Hans Stettler (Jean-Daniel Renggli, Association patronale pour l'industrie et le commerce); Erich Mosset, Ronda (Christopher Bitterli, Grovana).

At the end of the statutory part, the meeting was privileged to listen to Yves Rossier, Director of the Federal National Insurance Office, whose topic for the occasion was "The future of national insurance in Switzerland".

July 05, 2006