Société coopérative Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg

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Société coopérative Migros
Neuchâtel-Friborg

logo
legal form cooperative
founding 1941
Seat La Tène , SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
management
  • Jean-Marc Bovay (Chief Executive Officer )
  • Damien Piller
    (President of Administration)
  • Daniel Bena (President of the Cooperative Council)
Number of employees 2,007
sales 755.2 million CHF
Branch Retail trade , gastronomy
Website Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg
Status: 2018

The Société Coopérative Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg ( German  Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg ) is one of ten cooperatives of Migros , the largest retail company of Switzerland . It is based in the municipality of La Tène and is a legally independent company within the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB). Migros Neuenburg-Freiburg was created in 1941 from the conversion of a branch of Migros AG. In terms of sales, it is now the eighth largest of all Migros cooperatives.

Organization and key figures

The catchment area of ​​the Société coopérative Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg includes the cantons of Neuchâtel and Friborg (excluding the region around Estavayer-le-Lac ), the western part of the Bernese Jura in the canton of Bern , the Franches-Montagnes district in the canton of Jura and the region around Avenches in the canton of Vaud . It holds 4.4% of the cooperative capital of the MGB. In 2018, Migros Neuchâtel-Freiburg had 124,000 cooperative members, who are represented by a cooperative council with 39 members, which is newly elected every four years. Eight of the council members are also delegates to the delegates' assembly of the FMC. 2018 generated 2,007 employees produced sales of 755.2 million francs . The headquarters of the cooperative is the Marin distribution center in the municipality of La Tène .

Business activity

The Société coopérative Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg includes:

history

The Migros AG branch in Bern opened branches in Neuchâtel , La Chaux-de-Fonds and Friborg in 1932 and 1933 , as well as a sales depot in Tramelan . So, Migros was before the entry into force of the branch ban for the first time in Romandie represented. On October 20, 1941, the Société coopérative Migros romande was founded . However, the commercial register office ordered the deletion of the word romande , as Migros was not yet represented in most of the French-speaking part of Switzerland. For this reason, on December 30, 1941, the cooperative was renamed Société coopérative Migros, siège de Neuchâtel . The Migros Bern Cooperative, which was founded in the same year , initially remained responsible for administration until it was completely organizationally separated on June 1, 1949.

Although the established grocers in the canton of Neuchâtel also fought against cheaper competition, Migros met with significantly less resistance than in other parts of the country. For example, the health authorities of Le Locle wanted to ban the sale of meat in 1946 until the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office taught otherwise. Selling cars drove for the first time in 1957 - with the condition that all stops had to be at least 50 meters from the nearest supermarket. Five years earlier, the cooperative put the first distribution center into operation, which soon no longer met the requirements. As early as 1962, she moved into a new building in Marin-Epagnier (today in the municipality of La Tène), which subsequently had to be expanded several times due to a lack of space. In 1984 the cooperative took on its current name.

Affair Piller

On July 1, 2019, the MGB filed a criminal complaint against Damien Piller, the president of the administration, with the public prosecutor of the canton of Friborg , accusing him of having personally enriched himself . In the expansion of buildings in Belfaux and La Roche in which Migros supermarkets are rented, around 1.7 million francs are said to have flowed to companies owned by Piller. Another criminal complaint from management followed on July 16. This should ensure that allegations of disloyal management are investigated by an independent body. At the end of August, an expert report commissioned by the administration concluded that there was no evidence that Piller had embezzled money. The cooperative council did not share this opinion: in mid-September, in a consultative vote, it withdrew their confidence in Piller and the rest of the administration. Since no other member of the committee resigned apart from Elena Wildi-Ballabio (full-time secretary to Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis ), the council decided to hold a ballot on November 16, 2019 - a process that is unique in the history of Migros.

Before the strike vote, the management and the personnel committee of the cooperative, the presidents of all nine other Migros cooperatives, the Gottlieb and Adele Duttweiler Foundation and the Federation of Migros cooperatives voted in favor of the dismissal. Piller sued against the implementation of the strike vote, but the regional court Littoral - Region Val-de-Travers refused on November 14, 2019 to issue a super-provisional injunction in his favor. On November 20, it was announced that 64.5% of those who voted had spoken out against the recall. The vote was carried out by the external consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers in order to ensure independence. Two days earlier, Radio Télévision Suisse reported that a postal worker in a small community outside the cooperative's catchment area had found 400 ballot papers, all of which had been filled out in favor of Piller. In the face of this news, the Cooperative Committee immediately filed a criminal complaint with the Neuchâtel Public Prosecutor's Office for forgery of documents and corruption. On June 11, 2020, the public prosecutor reported that of the around 50,000 ballot papers received, around 28,000 were forged. A new count by the College of Criminal Sciences at the University of Lausanne showed that 17,600 had voted for Piller's removal and only 4,600 against.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Société coopérative Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg. Commercial register of the Canton of Neuchâtel, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  2. a b c d Rapport de gestion 2018. (PDF; 2.0 MB) Société coopérative Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 (French).
  3. Organization & structure. In: Annual Report 2018. Federation of Migros Cooperatives, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  4. ^ Alfred A. Häsler : The Migros Adventure. The 60 year old idea . Ed .: Federation of Migros Cooperatives. Migros Presse, Zurich 1985, p. 170 .
  5. ^ Häsler: The Migros Adventure. Pp. 170-172.
  6. Patrick Mülhauser: Suspicion of enrichment - Did the regional Migros president divert money? Swiss Radio and Television , July 2, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  7. Natalie Gratwohl: The dispute at Migros is entering the next round. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 26, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  8. ^ Ballot on the conflict between Migros and Piller in November. Aargauer Zeitung , July 26, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  9. Natalie Gratwohl: The Migros cooperative members decide to vote out the regional prince. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 25, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  10. Votation générale extraordinaire 2019. Société coopérative Migros Neuchâtel-Friborg, October 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 (French).
  11. La justice valid le vote sur le sort de l'administration. Le Matin , November 14, 2019, accessed November 20, 2019 (French).
  12. ^ A b Migros Neuchâtel Freiburg: Dismissal of Damien Piller rejected - but election manipulation? Handelszeitung , November 20, 2019, accessed on November 20, 2019 .
  13. Découverte de 400 bulletins de vote sur la révocation de Damien Piller. Radio Télévision Suisse , November 18, 2019, accessed on November 20, 2019 (French).
  14. Regional boss not deposed only thanks to forged ballot papers. Swiss radio and television , June 11, 2020, accessed on June 11, 2020 .