The French-speaking Swiss headed Migros for five years. He took over the company during a crisis and streamlined it. But tensions have remained.
Fabrice Zumbrunnen headed the FMC Directorate General from 2018.
The step comes as a surprise, at least for outsiders: Fabrice Zumbrunnen will resign as Migros boss at the end of April 2023. He is stepping down from his post at the head of the general management of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB) after around five years – a relatively short time. The predecessor Herbert Bolliger had been in office for around 13 years.
Officially, the departure is justified in a message from Tuesday evening with the fact that Zumbrunnen still wants to do something new. Born in Jura, he is only 52 years old, but has been with the Migros Group for a total of 26 years. He may have considered the time to be good to try something new professionally.
Efficiency program for the orange giant
Zumbrunnen led Migros through a tense period. When he advanced to the top of MGB’s general management in January 2018, the company was in crisis. Migros got bogged down, lost ground to its big competitor Coop and suffered from dwindling profitability.
Zumbrunnen launched the “Fast Forward” efficiency program to refocus the widely ramified Migros Group. In 2019 he announced the big sale: Migros sold the Globus department store group, the Interio furniture store, the German furniture brand Depot and the e-bike subsidiary M-Way.
work in the background
The Migros boss always emphasized that he also worked in the background. Efficiency has also been improved in places where customers do not see it directly – for example in the cooperation between the numerous Migros industrial companies that produce food and the supermarkets in the ten Swiss Migros regional cooperatives. Recently, for example, the fitness centers and club schools, which were previously spread across many regional cooperatives, were organizationally merged, which not only caused joy in the regions.
In a media release, thanks were also given for Zumbrunnen’s successes. She very much regrets Zumbrunnen’s decision, said Ursula Nold, President of the “Administration” (Board of Directors) of the MGB. He has implemented important things, such as streamlining the company portfolio, expanding the leading position of the Migros Group in Swiss online retail and strengthening the company’s profitability. “Migros is the undisputed market leader in Swiss retail and has been able to assert itself as number 1 both in stationary business and in online trade, as well as being the largest private employer in Switzerland.”
Strong internal resistances
What Zumbrunnen was striving for was a kind of “new” Migros. But there is still the “old” Migros. It is embodied by the ten regional cooperatives that actually call the shots within the Migros structures and whose bosses enjoy a great deal of influence.
The extent to which the “old” Migros can be changed – and how much Zumbrunnen actually wanted and was able to do so – is questionable. When he was elected Migros boss, he only received a relatively narrow majority. He came from the small Migros regional cooperative in Neuchâtel-Fribourg, which was also later shaken by a scandal involving vote rigging.
Zumbrunnen’s position was not considered particularly strong to assert itself against the vetoes from the dominant regional cooperatives. That probably didn’t match his personality either. Zumbrunnen is rather reserved, he avoids pithy words and acts in a consensus-oriented manner.
Many construction sites remain
So there should still be a lot to do at Migros. The company may have become leaner. But it still makes more “bacon” than its competitors at home and abroad, as a recent NZZ analysis showed.
The operating profit numbers have indeed improved in recent years. In 2020 and 2021, the Migros Group was clearly in the black again. But it also benefited from a boom during the Corona crisis, when the Swiss flocked to the local retail trade because they had to cook at home and could no longer go to the neighboring countries to shop.
Declines after Corona boom
The acid test for Migros – like some of its competitors – is due this year. In the Migros supermarkets, sales are apparently declining again after two strong years of Corona, which is causing unrest in the regional cooperatives. In addition, the inflationary environment in the industry is causing problems because numerous suppliers are complaining about rising costs and are demanding higher purchase prices from Migros. “It’s a situation that we’ve never been confronted with before,” Zumbrunnen told the NZZ in March 2022.
The struggle between “new” and “old” Migros should keep the company busy in the future. It would be in line with the company’s tradition for the successor to come from within the company’s own ranks. The Migros administration, in which the heads of the ten regional cooperatives and thirteen other members sit, will decide on the personnel.