TAG Heuer sees single-digit sales growth this year

CHEVENEZ, Switzerland (Reuters) - Swiss watch brand TAG Heuer, owned by LVMH , expects to see single-digit sales growth this year and is aiming to outperform market growth estimated at about 5 percent in 2014, its head told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We're expecting to be in positive territory for the year as a whole," Stephane Linder, who took over as chief executive from Jean-Christophe Babin this summer, told Reuters on the sidelines of a factory inauguration in western Switzerland.

"Next year, Swiss watch exports could realistically rise about 5 percent, and we'll outperform the market," he said.

Swiss watch exports rose a mere 1.9 percent in the first nine months of 2013, dragged down by lower demand in Greater China, where retailers sat on too much stock, and a sluggish recovery in the United States, their two most important markets.