News Known mainly for its activity in the watch and jewellery retail trade, the Bucherer group, which employs a workforce of nearly 1,200 and last year realised a turnover in excess of 500 million francs, also produces its own watches. Its stores, as well as a number of carefully selected retailers throughout the world, have in fact been selling Bucherer timepieces since 1919, on the initiative of the firm's founder Carl Friedrich Bucherer and alongside other famous brands such as Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Piaget, IWC, TAG Heuer, Gucci and Rado. Today, this activity occupies around thirty employees, distributed evenly between the group's headquarters in Lucerne (see photo) and production workshops in Nidau.
With a view to expanding the brand in Europe and Asia in the short and medium term, the Lucerne-based firm, which is also targeting the United States in a longer-term perspective, has initially revised its product range, which is now marketed under the Carl F. Bucherer trademark. It comprises five collections, the spearheads being Pathos (see photo), Antecedo and Patravi, presented in Basle this spring. The firm is clearly positioned in the medium to upper sector (from 1,000 to 3,000 francs) and in gold watches or articles set with jewels (from 5,000 to 15,000 francs).
At the same time the group has decided to increase its production capacity. With the Nidau plant being too small to meet its new requirements, a larger production site (1,000 m2) will be opened in the spring of 2002 in Lengnau (BE), bringing new jobs for highly qualified watchmakers and jewellers. The investment involved is in the order of one million francs.
To ensure the success of the operation, a new press and television advertising campaign will shortly be getting under way with, as its slogan, "The Magic Garden of Carl F. Bucherer".
November 08, 2001
