Migros Cooperative Zurich

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Migros Cooperative Zurich

logo
legal form cooperative
founding 1941
Seat Zurich , SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
management
  • Jörg Blunschi (Managing Director)
  • Edi Class (President of Administration)
  • Roger Studer (President of the Cooperative Council)
Number of employees 9,157
sales 4.00 billion CHF
Branch Retail trade , gastronomy
Website Migros Zurich
Status: 2018

The cooperative Migros Zurich (GMZ) is one of ten cooperatives of Migros , the largest retail company of Switzerland . It is based in Zurich and is a legally independent company within the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB). Migros Zurich was created in 1941 from the conversion of the main branch of Migros AG, which had existed since 1925. By taking over the trading division of Tegut , the cooperative has also been active in Germany since 2013 . In terms of sales, it is the largest of all Migros cooperatives.

Organization and key figures

The Migros Zurich catchment area includes the canton of Zurich (excluding the districts of Andelfingen , Hinwil and Winterthur ), the canton of Glarus , the See-Gaster region in the canton of St. Gallen and the northern part of the canton of Schwyz . It holds a 32.3% stake in the MGB's cooperative capital. In 2018, Migros Zurich had 329,768 cooperative members, who are represented by a cooperative council with 60 members that is newly elected every four years. Twelve of the council members are also delegates to the delegates' assembly of the MGB. 2018 generated 9'157 employees a turnover of 2.616 billion francs . The headquarters of the cooperative is the Herdern distribution center in Zurich .

Migros branch in Wollishofen
Smooth center

The GMZ Group consists of the actual cooperative and four subsidiaries that are 100% owned (Activ Fitness, Aciso, Tegut , Ospena Group). In 2018, the group's total sales were 3.999 billion Swiss francs, with the subsidiaries accounting for 34%.

Business activity

Main company

The Migros Zurich Cooperative includes:

In addition, since January 1, 2020, the 15 MFIT fitness centers of the Migros Ostschweiz Cooperative have also been part of the Migros Zurich Cooperative, which are now also operating under the Activ Fitness brand . The cooperative is also responsible for the maintenance of the Park im Grüene in Rüschlikon on behalf of the Stiftung Im Grüene, founded in 1946 by Gottlieb Duttweiler and Adele Duttweiler-Bertschi .

Subsidiaries

Tegut headquarters in Fulda

The following companies belong to the GMZ Group:

  • The main focus of the Tegut retail chain based in Fulda, Germany , is in the area of organic food . In 2018 Tegut was represented with 273 branches in six federal states, with a focus on Hesse , Thuringia and the Bavarian region of Franconia . 6,808 employees achieved a turnover equivalent to 1.19 billion francs.
  • Active Fitness is a Zurich- based company that operates a total of 62 fitness studios in all regions of Switzerland , making it the market leader in this segment. In 2018, 1,848 employees (mostly part-time employees) achieved sales of 64.4 million francs.
  • The ACISO Fitness & Health GmbH , based in Munich, operates in Germany seven fitness and wellness facilities of the premium brand element . The associated inline group in Dorsten offers advice for fitness companies and supports two franchise formats. A total of 273 employees are employed, who achieved sales of 29 million francs in 2018.
  • The Ospena Group , based in Zurich, operates 22 restaurants with Italian cuisine as well as a boutique hotel with a restaurant and café. In 2018, it achieved sales of CHF 70 million with 550 employees.

history

The first years

One of the first Migros sales cars (1925)

In the first years of its existence, Migros in Zurich was identical to Migros AG as a whole. It was initially based in two offices on Hafnerstrasse near the main train station ; after a short time it moved to the exhibition street near the Limmatplatz , where the warehouse was also located. On August 25, 1925, the first sales cars left there . In December 1926, Migros opened its first shop on the same street . The Zurich head office was initially responsible for delivering to all sales vehicles and shops in other cantons, until branches were established in Basel , Bern and St. Gallen in 1930 (two more were added in Lucerne and Schaffhausen in 1932 ), although these were operational for a while remained dependent. In the summer of 1931, Migros moved into the empty factory building of the Meier silk dye works as its new operations center; the address at Limmatstrasse 152 is still the same as that of the headquarters of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB).

In contrast to other cantons, the authorities of the canton of Zurich initially imposed relatively fair conditions on Migros AG. For example, customers were not allowed to be attracted by calls or signals and the vending cars had to stop on the left side of the street. In 1927, the Zurich government council even urged the Federal Council to ensure that the goods offered by Migros did not fall under the peddling ban. The associations of traders and grocers as well as politicians close to them did not agree with the government council's laissez-faire attitude. In 1932 they unsuccessfully demanded an amendment to the peddler law, combined with an increase in fees from 18 to 300 francs per month per sales vehicle. On April 19, 1933, the parliamentary group of the farmers, trade and citizens' party in the Cantonal Council submitted a motion to increase the fees for “mobile shops”, which was transferred with 107: 6 votes. In November 1933, the Committee urged the Association of mayors of the Canton of Zurich from the Government also charges 300 francs a month - he justified this with alleged tax revenues at local grocers.

In view of the increasing political pressure from representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, Duttweiler launched a petition on May 11, 1934 , with which the authorities were to be asked not to burden the “efficient and willing” Migros with “special taxes”. 115,755 signatures were collected within three months. Regardless of this, the government council submitted an amendment to the law to the Cantonal Council on February 7, 1935, whereupon the parliamentarians decided on May 4, 1936 after lengthy deliberations with 74:49 votes a monthly fee of 385 francs per car. The result of the following referendum on December 13, 1936 was clearly in favor of Migros: The change in the law was rejected by 86,357 votes to 38,519. Migros was less successful in the canton of Glarus , where the rural community set the monthly sales car fee at CHF 550. Since Migros already ran a shop in the main town of Glarus , it decided not to use sales cars until 1957.

Development of the cooperative

On March 24, 1941, the Migros Zurich Cooperative (GMZ) was founded. The cantons of Zurich, Glarus, Lucerne , Schaffhausen and Zug , as well as the eastern part of the canton Aargau and the western part of the cantons St. Gallen and Thurgau belonged to their catchment area . The cantons initially co-supervised soon got their own cooperatives and, after a few years, also gained operational independence. In 1957, the members of the cooperative agreed to found their own cooperative for the region around Winterthur , which was founded on June 12, 1958 and which merged with the Schaffhausen cooperative nine years later. In 1958, the people of Zurich again agreed to reduce their catchment area, whereupon the Migros Glarus cooperative was founded on April 8 of the same year . However, this suffered for years from its small size, which is why it was re-integrated into the GMZ in 1969.

Distribution center Herdern

After the establishment of the cooperative, the administrative and personal relationships between the GMZ and the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB) remained close and were only separated over time. The new headquarters at Limmatstrasse 152, which was moved into in 1941, mainly served the needs of the MGB. GMZ, in turn, was the innovative pioneer of Migros. On 15 March 1948 she opened the first self-service shop in Switzerland on the Silk Alley in Zurich (only two months after the European premiere at the British retail chain Tesco ), four years later, the opening was followed on Limmatplatz one of the first supermarkets in Europe, 1959, the first Thurs. it yourself department. In 1966, after two years of construction, the Herdern distribution center on Pfingstweidstrasse was completed, with a converted volume of 500,000 m³, the Migros Group's largest construction project to date. GMZ rented more than half of the 16-story office building belonging to it to MGB and subsidiaries. This situation lasted until the move into the even larger Migros high-rise in 1981.

Expansion strategy

In view of the saturated retail market in Switzerland, GMZ began to develop further business areas at the beginning of the 21st century, independent of the MGB. As early as 1983 GMZ operated fitness centers in its catchment area and gradually the fitness and wellness market developed into a second core business. In order to diversify in this area, GMZ took over the Active Fitness chain, which was founded in Erlenbach in 1984 and had nine locations at the time, in 2007 . After the concentration of the offer in the Zurich area, the national expansion followed in 2011, on the one hand by opening its own studios, on the other hand by taking over several smaller chains in French- speaking Switzerland . Today Active Fitness is the market leader in Switzerland. In 2012, GMZ expanded its fitness and wellness offer to Germany , founded Migros Freizeit Deutschland GmbH (merged in 2019 to ACISO Fitness & Health GmbH) and developed the premium brand Elements . Since the further expansion proved to be difficult, the GmbH cooperated with the Inline Group from 2014 and took it over two years later. Management consulting for fitness companies and support for the Injoy and FT-Club franchise formats were added as new business areas.

The retail company Tegut , founded in 1947, had a considerable modernization backlog with its rapid expansion into eastern Germany after the fall of the Wall , so that the owner family Gutberlet was on the lookout for a possible buyer. In 2012, the GMZ examined the Swiss market launch of organic products from Alnatura , a company closely associated with Tegut. Alnatura managing director Götz Rehn informed GMZ managing director Jörg Blunschi about the intention to sell the Gutberlets. The GMZ's management and cooperative council quickly decided to expand into the German retail sector. The transaction announced in October 2012 took place in January 2013 and GMZ took over the trading division of the former tegut… Gutberlet Foundation & Co. KG . After a streamlining of the branch network, an even more consistent focus on organic food and the foray into southern German growth markets, a significant increase in sales was achieved.

GMZ also strengthened its position in the Swiss catering market. In 2014 she took over Molino AG , which was founded in Uster in 1988 and was then part of the Athris Holding portfolio . She founded the new subsidiary Ospena Group , adding to the previous self-service restaurants more than a dozen Italian restaurants.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Migros Cooperative Zurich. Commercial register of the Canton of Zurich, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Annual Report 2018 (PDF, 3.8 MB) Migros Cooperative Zurich, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Organization & structure. In: Annual Report 2018. Federation of Migros Cooperatives, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  4. ^ Subsidiaries of the Migros Cooperative Zurich. In: migros.ch. Retrieved January 16, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Stefan Borkert: Turbulent year at Migros Ostschweiz: tumbling prices and shrinking sales. In: tagblatt.ch . January 4, 2020, accessed January 11, 2020 .
  6. ↑ On your toes in Dutti-Park. Migros Magazine , June 20, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Migros Cooperative Zurich: Annual Report 2018. p. 25.
  8. ↑ Migros Cooperative Zurich: Annual Report 2018. p. 41.
  9. ↑ https://www.elements.com/studios/
  10. ↑ Migros Cooperative Zurich: Annual Report 2018. pp. 48–49.
  11. ↑ Migros Cooperative Zurich: Annual Report 2018. p. 33.
  12. ^ Alfred A. Häsler : The Migros Adventure. The 60 year old idea . Ed .: Federation of Migros Cooperatives. Migros Presse, Zurich 1985, p. 292-293 .
  13. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. Pp. 295-299.
  14. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. Pp. 44-45.
  15. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. Pp. 47-48.
  16. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. Pp. 48-49.
  17. ↑ a b Häsler: The Migros Adventure. P. 144.
  18. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. P. 188.
  19. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. Pp. 325, 327.
  20. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. P. 309.
  21. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. Pp. 188-189.
  22. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. P. 335.
  23. ↑ Migros Cooperative Zurich: Annual Report 2018. pp. 37–41.
  24. ↑ https://www.aciso.com/unternehmen
  25. ↑ Migros Cooperative Zurich: Annual Report 2018. pp. 43–49.
  26. ↑ Migros Cooperative Zurich: Annual Report 2018. pp. 20–24.
  27. ↑ Migros Cooperative Zurich: Annual Report 2018. pp. 27–33.