Pick Pay
Pick Pay was a Swiss company in the retail trade . The company, founded in 1968 by Bruno Gideon (1931–2015) in Rümlang as a discounter, was restructured several times in the 1990s and relocated to Volketswil , where it became part of the Bon appétit Group and later part of Rewe Switzerland , before the company was formally dissolved Was taken over in 2005 by the Rast Holding subsidiary Denner .
history
In more than twenty years of arduous work, Karl Schweri paves the way for the Pick Pay discounter, breaking the old Swiss trading system and forcing the branded goods industry to give up fixed retail prices for food in 1967. In the same year, Schweri opened the first branch of the discounter in Zurich - Altstetten, which became known as Denner from 1969 .
The Pick Pay AG based in Rümlang is entered on August 29, 1968 at the Trade Register and opened in the same year its first branch in Zurich Oerlikon . The company, which operates from Glattbrugg, was taken over by Hofer & Curti AG in 1982 .
Hofer & Curti, Denner and Usego-Trimerco Holding AG (UTH) enter into a strategic partnership in 1990 in order to break the market dominance of Migros and Coop , but as early as 1993 Denner decided to exit. Denner leaves Hofer & Curti shares in UTH, into which Pick Pay is integrated in 1994. In 1996 the merger of Pick Pay and UTH followed, from which the Usego Hofer Curti AG (UHC) emerged , which in turn merged with the Bon appétit Holding AG in 1999 . This creates the Bon appétit Group (BAG) based in Volketswil.
BAG has reached its zenith and launches the first Starbucks branches in continental Europe (license for Switzerland and Austria). Just as quickly, however, the zenith is passed again and in 2003 BAG had to part with various branches of the company and the Starbucks licenses. When the German Rewe Group showed interest in the supposedly lucrative Swiss market and the shrinking bon appétit , the Curti family seized the opportunity to sell their shares in BAG. In June 2003, Rewe acquired the majority of shares in BAG and made the mandatory, public takeover offer to all shareholders, which other shareholders also took advantage of. Rewe thus acquires 88% of the share capital of BAG.
Rewe Switzerland
The year 2004 also developed poorly and Rewe reduced BAG to the two business units Pick Pay and the catering wholesaler Prodega CC / Growa CC . In the course of the year further shareholders sell their shares in Rewe, which at the end of 2004 controlled over 99% of the BAG share capital. New forms of business are being examined for Pick Pay , as the branches are usually linked to Migros properties by long-term rental contracts and the contracts cannot be terminated. The "re-conversion" of Pick Pay into a discounter fails because Migros is now fighting a tough price war with Denner and Carrefour (Switzerland) with its own M-Budget product line . The "terminable" branches will be transferred to Pick Fresh , a new franchise system, and leased.
In 2005, Rewe started talks with Migros about a joint venture in the catering wholesaling business, in which the Federation of Migros Cooperatives itself is active with the subsidiary Scana Lebensmittel AG . Suddenly, however, Rewe concludes a joint venture with Coop and thus causes Migros to worry. Because of the broken word, Migros declares that it wants to terminate the leases for the Pick Pay branches when the contracts expire and in this way let the company disappear from the market over the next few years.
At the end of June 2005, Rewe delisted the remaining BAG shares (0.15%), legally forcing the complete takeover of the old company. The remaining BAG business units will then be merged and restructured in Rewe Schweiz AG . The company withdrew from the Swiss retail trade two months later: on September 5, 2005, Rast Holding (Denner) officially confirmed the takeover of the Pick Pay branches from Rewe Switzerland. Pick Pay has been owned by Rast Holding since November 1, 2005. In 2006, all Pick Pay branches were converted into Denner branches or closed.
2004 financial year
At the end of 2004, the company operated 125 of its own stores and supplied 100 independent retailers who operated under the name "Pick Pay Partner". The range consisted of more than 4,000 items, most of which were branded items , but also private label products.
In 2004 the company employed around 1,300 people and achieved sales of 825 million francs. The gain (or loss) is unknown.