10 out of 27 Fnac stores will be closed

The Manor supermarket chain wanted to save costs and make more money with Fnac. Obviously this didn’t work.

Benjamin Weinman/ch media

There is a lot of noise at Manor, Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain: In the past few days, employees have been harshly critical of working conditions, rumors have been circulating about sales – and the company’s boss, Jerome Gilge, recently had to vacate his post and make way for Germany’s Roland Armbruster.

But that’s not all: the collaboration with the French book and entertainment giant Fnac, announced in spring 2022, is also proceeding pleasantly. In any case, the collaboration will be severed, Manor spokeswoman Sandra Kanzig confirmed upon request. In the future, the focus will be on the 17 outlets in which FNAC will operate a store within a store. This means that 10 of the 27 sites will now be closed. SRF radio broadcaster reported that this would happen between April and the end of June.

Apparently, Gilig’s strategy is not working

Launched in late 2020, the Fnac collaboration has been a key component of Gilg’s strategy. He left the area of ​​selling and designing the collection of books, electronics, films and books to the French. Fnac should take advantage of the Manor customers who are already in store. In return, Gilge hoped to get less risk and better quality from the specialty retailer. Fnac – previously only present in French-speaking Switzerland – wanted to use this strategy to double its sales from 100 million francs to 200 million. But it seems that this collaboration was not convincing enough in the business books. Gilg has entered into a similar partnership with French sports retailer Decathlon

The company that owns Maus Frères did not give any details about Gilge’s departure. An insider believes there is a simple explanation for the breakup between Mouse’s group and their former student Gileg: “The performance just wasn’t good enough.” Gilg was always faithful to the line, but in practice the owners expected more. (bzbasel.ch)

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