Swiss Richemont plans new staffing

ZURICH, May 21 (AFP): Swiss luxury products group Richemont, which reported a 79 per cent rise in profits last week, plans to hire 2,000 more people to meet soaring demand, an executive said in an interview published Saturday. Co-director Richard Lepeu told Swiss daily Le Temps he had 2.58 billion euros (US$3.62 billion) to invest in production and distribution as delays in delivery of a multitude of products were building up. "After recalculating, it seems we need between 850 and 900 more people this year" and a similar number in 2012, he said, "or about 1,900 over two years." Richemont, which owns brands including Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc and Piaget, said Thursday that its full-year net profit soared 79 per cent to 1.1 billion euros. Overall sales were up 33 per cent, with Asia-Pacific leading growth, the group said in a statement detailing earnings for the year ending March 31. Revenues in Asia-Pacific were up 48 per cent at 2.57 billion euros, fast catching up with Europe, the region which traditionally posts the biggest revenues in absolute numbers. In Europe, sales reached 2.59 billion euros, up 23 per cent from a year ago. The group issued a positive outlook for the rest of 2011, saying that sales in April were 32 per cent up from the same month last year.