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Well, let's talk about China's luxury spending slow down. That's getting worse. Swiss watchmakers are suffering from a sharp decline in demand aid the current pullback brightening CEO Georges Kern it's remaining upbeat and is confident that the luxury industry has hit bottom. And Georges joins us now to tell us more So, Georges, it was just back in September you were here on Bloomberg TV telling us that the luxury market has hit the bottom. Well, since then, we've
found things could get a little bit worse. We've had Swiss watch exports falling a bit more, LVMH and May disclosing a sharp drop and watch sales and there financial results. So are we at the bottom now or could there be more to come?
Well, it depends on the countries.
China remains difficult, but USA has been picking up lately. What you see today in the watch market in particular is a kind of k development, so meaning a couple of brands doing extremely well in a way the winner takes it all, and then many brands going sharply down. So yes, you have to be part of the first group and continue to gain market share, and this is the case for Brightling.
Well, let's take a look at some of those divergent markets that you mentioned. The US, as you say, has been performing fairly. Well, how do you expect the US to consume it to behave after next week, once the election's out of the way. And do you think there's going to be a difference depending on who wins, whether it's a Trump victory or a Harris victory.
Well, that's very difficult to say.
We as managers and as corporations, we have to adapt to any situation. Of course, Donald Trump certainly has or will be given impulses to the economy, but we don't know. We don't have a crystal ball in our hands, and we have to deal with the situation as it is.
There are other.
Countries growing, like India, you know, Malaysia, Indonesia. You cannot fight demography, So there are many many countries out there where there's growth potential. But bottom line, the US economy is extremely resilient. We have been talking about recession in the US since years and it never happened. And I don't believe that the election will influence this status quo.
In terms of not fighting demography. Let's talk a little bit about China, because of course some of the troubles and consumer confidence they are well known. How are you approaching that market at the moment.
Well, we continue our investments. We started really as writing only after COVID in a very i would say professional way. But China represents for us only six or seven percent of our turnover, so thank god, we are not dependent.
A couple of years.
Back, I was a little annoyed about the situation today. We are part of the branch which are very lucky. As you know, many watch manufacturers are dependent, really dependent on China, generating forty to fifty percent of their cells. So imagine you have a drop of thirty percent of forty percent in China. What influences might have on the top line of the whole company. So you have to be a plane with five engines and even if one engine has a problem, at least or four other.
Engines should work.
And this is basically our philosophy and strategy and management approach.
Yeah, some of your competitors, of course, have struggled in that regard. We've seen some employees furloughed, do you expect to see some more of that going forward.
I really believe and I hope it's not wishful thinking that we have reached the bottom. On a worldwide level, we've seen across the board of the last three four months an increase of sales. Of course, consumer sentiment is influenced by political situations and you've discussed about that, but interest rates have been decreased. There are some also economic impulses given by the Chinese government, so we see.
A kind of recovery.
I hope it will stabilize and we will see growth again in the next coming months. On a worldwide level, Again, the country I'm the most confident about, certainly the US, but also the UK is recovering.
A little bit.
And again you have amazing potentials in you what we would call new countries and regions. Also India with one point six billion population, which is a third economy worldwide, and which is also growing.
In terms of some of the difficulties watchmakers are facing right now. Is that something you've had to do though, furlough employees or access government support programs or are you managing.
No, No, we're managing, saying God, And I'm not a big fan of subsidies. We cannot only be sunshine managers in our business. The economic environment is what it is. And as we're in Buffett used to say, when the tide goes down, you see who was swimming naked. And hopefully many companies have a good basing suit on the world. Is stuff out there, But we're fighting and I'm confident, and as I said.
Earlier, we're growing again. So yeah, let's take it from there.
Just finally, I want to ask you about the Universal genev brand that you bought last year. Can you give us an update on that? So might we see some new watches? How would you position them in the market, And in terms of timing, is this really the right time to be doing something like this.
No, absolutely, because interestingly enough, it's the super luxury is a luxury. It is a superluxury market which is the most resilient. It's the entrance price a point which is suffering. So Universalgenere will be positioned above, far above ten thousand US dollars and this is something which will add value also to brightening bright things. Average price is eight thousand, two hundred now, but universalgene will start at thirteen fourteen thousand US dollars, so I think it's a very good
compliment to what we offer today with writing. It's a totally different brand. It will be managed in a different way. The retailers are waiting for it. We just launched yesterday all our social media and I invite everybody to have a look into this fantastic brand which will be relaunched by twenty twenty six.
All Right, Georges Kern, the CEO of Bridling, thank you so much for joining us.