Operational since the summer of 2011, Tissot’s new logistics centre enables the watch brand, already present in over 150 countries and 16,000 points of sale, to keep pace with strong worldwide demand. Equipped with five automated robots and 32,000 compartments enabling it to deliver up to twelve million watches and components at a speed of 5 metres per second, the Tissot Logistics Centre represents the culmination of substantial modernisation. From renovating the façades to building a museum in the original 2003 building, the company has invested over 50 million francs over the past fifteen years, under the impetus of its worldwide president François Thiébaud. The latter considers the new facility as “Switzerland’s largest logistics centre” representing a 20 million-franc investment. These dizzying figures are well on the way to paying high dividends.

 

 

With its over 650-million franc turnover, Tissot is clearly not adversely affected by tough economic circumstances. Its expansion is matched by a relentless and well-established tenacity. Since its early days in 1853, the brand escaped unscathed from the crises in 1929 and in the 1970s and 80s by associating with other watch groups, and is coping extremely well with the current one despite the high rate of the Swiss franc. While avoiding cost increases even when recession bites most deeply, Tissot has instead decided to focus on quality. The affordable price of its watches that ensures strong international visibility; its capacity to innovate by using avant-garde technologies; its position within the Swatch Group which enables it to source supplies from sister companies such as ETA, Universo and Comadur; along with its essentially Swiss production, have ensured double-digit growth for the company since 1996, with the exception of 2009. The new logistics centre is a natural new step in this ongoing expansion: quality controls have increased 15 to 20% on the models produced, thereby generating thousands of new jobs.