CNN’s Luxury Life coverage continues with an interview with Patek Philippe's President Philippe Ster
Philippe Stern: "I expect this year, 2009 to be a bad year.i don’t see how it could really improve, maybe a little bit at the end of the year. I think if there is an improvemnent it will start only mid next year 2010, not before."
Are you worried?
No I’m not worried. I’m not optimistical I’m realist. I mean yes, business is going to be more, to be more difficult. We have to watch our cost, I mean we are not going to engage more people. We.. I think you.. It’s a you have to make different action in different direction but no panic. We hope that business will start again, I don’t know when but it will start . I mean crisis we had quite a few. I’ve been through many crisis and ehhh….
Have you ever seen anything like this one before?
Maybe also it was..., every crisis is different. I saw a very bad one which was in 1972, when you know the Quartz watches came from Japan, everybody said well now, the mechanic watch is finished, I mean it will only be Quartz watches and the watch industry in Switzerland dropped from a hundred thousand workers to 33 thousand in eight months so this was really bad.
What kind of changes have you made in terms of operations as a result of the, the economy?
I don’t think we made many changes. I mean we still have all our people. Maybe what is changing we take advantage of this crisis even to train more people, to take the time to train them…and it could be a watch-maker, but it could be also sales people. Even today we are investing in some new, a new workshop at PatekPhillipe in Geneva. What we are doing now is a big investment in the future. So I feel very confident in the future. Today it’s a bit more difficult, but it will come back I’m sure.
Monica Rajpal CNN International
No I’m not worried. I’m not optimistical I’m realist. I mean yes, business is going to be more, to be more difficult. We have to watch our cost, I mean we are not going to engage more people. We.. I think you.. It’s a you have to make different action in different direction but no panic. We hope that business will start again, I don’t know when but it will start . I mean crisis we had quite a few. I’ve been through many crisis and ehhh….
Have you ever seen anything like this one before?
Maybe also it was..., every crisis is different. I saw a very bad one which was in 1972, when you know the Quartz watches came from Japan, everybody said well now, the mechanic watch is finished, I mean it will only be Quartz watches and the watch industry in Switzerland dropped from a hundred thousand workers to 33 thousand in eight months so this was really bad.
What kind of changes have you made in terms of operations as a result of the, the economy?
I don’t think we made many changes. I mean we still have all our people. Maybe what is changing we take advantage of this crisis even to train more people, to take the time to train them…and it could be a watch-maker, but it could be also sales people. Even today we are investing in some new, a new workshop at PatekPhillipe in Geneva. What we are doing now is a big investment in the future. So I feel very confident in the future. Today it’s a bit more difficult, but it will come back I’m sure.
Monica Rajpal CNN International
Avril 2009
