Biel/Bienne (Switzerland), August 19, 2015 – As of September 1, 2015, through its subsidiary Distico, the Swatch Group will be taking over the building at Länggasse 85 in Biel from Sputnik Engineering AG in liquidation.

This will allow the Swatch Group to transfer Distico from Taverne in Ticino to Biel and to expand it, thus creating 160 new jobs in Biel. Through this, Sputnik Engineering AG in liquidation has found a buyer for its property and the city of Biel receives additional jobs.

For all employees of Distico in Ticino who would be unable to make the move to Biel, the Swatch Group is offering alternative employment in the existing assembly plants in Ticino at Assemti SA, The Swatch Group Assembly SA and Diantus Watch SA. There won’t be any layoffs.

The Swatch Group has been working on a new building project in Ticino since 2010 to provide Distico with more space. Distico is adding the straps to the Swatch watches, packing and distributing them throughout the entire world. Thanks to the success of the Swatch brand, the current premises have been much too small for a number of years. However, the new building project in Ticino, for which construction approval was expected this year, would have been completed in 2019 at the earliest. The opportunity to take over the building of the Sputnik Engineering AG in liquidation offered the perfect alternative to the new building in Ticino. With a land area of more than 34,000 m² and production and office spaces of approx. 22,000 m², the building in Biel is even a little bigger than the initially planned project.