Walder shoe store

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Schuhhaus Walder AG
Walder Holding AG
legal form Corporation
founding 1874
Seat Wangen-Brüttisellen , Switzerland
management Daniel Walder ( CEO ) and
Hans-Peter Walder ( Chairman of the Board )
Number of employees approx. 380 (2015)
sales 63 million CHF (2014)
Branch Retail trade
Website www.walder.ch

The Schuhhaus Walder AG , based in Wangen-Brüttisellen is a Swiss retail chain for shoes and accessories . It operates around 45 specialist shops, in addition to the independent channels Walder Shoes and Walder Junior, as well as franchise partnerships with the global corporations Ecco and Gabor. The branches are spread all over Switzerland, but mainly in the greater Zurich area . The range includes shoes for women, men and children from various third-party and own brand "Walder Shoes" as well as accessories. Walder Junior is the market leader in high quality children's shoes. The family company, now in its sixth generation, employs around 380 people, including over 50 apprentices. The real estate company Walim AG, which emerged from the former shoe factory in 1973, also belongs to the group of companies .

history

The company was founded in 1874 by Caspar Appenzeller , a silk industrialist and philanthropist, in the former Rössli country inn in Brüttisellen, Zurich, as a shoe factory for homeless boys (known as the boys' institution "zur Heimat").

Two years later, in 1876, Heinrich Walder-Appenzeller, Caspar Appenzeller's son-in-law, gave up the parish in Kloten and took over the management of the shoe factory in Brüttisellen. This is how the name “Walder” came into the family. Under his aegis, the shoe factory was separated from the boys' institution in 1882 and the Brüttisellen country home, which still exists today, was founded. When Caspar Appenzeller died in 1901 at the age of 81, Heinrich Walder-Appenzeller continued all of his works and later introduced his children Marta, Max and Hans into the family business.

The Anstalt-Schuhfabrik Brüttisellen increasingly employed residents of the village of Brüttisellen and the surrounding communities and became the most important employer in the area. The employees lived in the company's own Walder-Dörfli and in other properties bought or built by the company. During the boom around the turn of the century, the shoe factory employed over 800 people and produced around 2,000 pairs of shoes a day.

Walder shoe factory in the 1970s

The post-war years were challenging due to cheap mass imports from neighboring European countries and the Great Depression. To ensure year-round production, the Walder shoe factory opened its first own retail business in 1929.

The fourth generation with Max, Heinrich and Hans Walder led the family business through the time of the Second World War. The overcapacities after the end of the war led to specialization in women's shoes. Daily production of over 3,000 pairs make Walder the second most important women's shoe manufacturer in Switzerland after Bally. Due to the import pressure and the high production costs compared to neighboring countries, the shoe factory had to be closed in October 1971.

In 1972, under the umbrella of the newly founded Walder Holding AG , Walim AG , which is responsible for the property management of the buildings vacated by the closure, and Schuhhaus Walder AG , through which the own retail chain Walder was launched with the opening of new branches , organized.

Under the leadership of the fifth generation, the company made the leap from manufacturer to retailer. The specialization in children's shoes in particular made Walder very well known and popular. In 1995, the first children's shoe store, Walder Junior, was opened in the Glattzentrum. Today Walder is the market leader in high-quality children's shoes. In 2009 with the Danish shoe manufacturer Ecco. In 2014 the company celebrated its 140th anniversary, for which the sixth generation of the family took over the reins of the traditional family company.

Web links