The story
Founded by Gottlieb Duttweiler on Aug 1925, in Zurich.1
Migros was founded in 1925 in Zurich as a private enterprise by Gottlieb Duttweiler, who had the idea of selling just six basic products at low prices to householders who, in those days, did not have ready access to markets of any kind. At first he sold only coffee, rice, sugar, pasta, coconut oil and soap from five lorries that went from one village or hamlet to another. The strategy to cut the intermediate trade and their margins led to the broad resistance of his competitors who goaded the producers to boycott him. As a reaction to this threat, Migros started creating its own line of goods beginning with meat, milk and chocolate.
Duttweiler and his drivers expanded their inventory and, in 1926, the first retail store opened its doors in Zurich. His second store, in Ticino, presaged the future as it was founded as a cooperative. By 1941, the energetic entrepreneur had built a number of markets but, in that year, he basically gave the business to his customers by transforming everything from his privately owned enterprises into regional cooperatives, headed by the Federation of Migros Cooperatives.
As early as 1935, Duttweiler showed his zest for expansion by founding the Hotelplan travel agency. In 1942, the Migros brand was applied to a weekly magazine, Wir Brückenbauer (lit. 'We Bridgebuilders', now known as Migros Magazine). Other ventures were restaurants in 1952, filling stations (Migrol) in 1954, language schools (Eurocentres) in 1956, the Migros Bank in 1957 and an insurance company in 1959.
In 1948, the economist Elsa Gasser convinced Duttweiler to introduce the self-service approach in Migros stores, paving the way for the development of Switzerland's most successful supermarket chain.
On behalf of the Migros Federation, the Zurich-based Reederei Zürich AG ordered at the H. C. Stülcken Sohn shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, the cargo ship Adele which was launched on 15 July 1952; the ship was christened by Adele Duttweiler, the wife of Gottlieb Duttweiler.
In 1954 Migros entered the Turkish market, forming Migros Türk in partnership with the Istanbul City Council. This was sold to the Turkish conglomerate Koç Holding in 1975 and is the largest retailer in Turkey. Between 2008 and 2011, Koç Holding sold most of its shares of Migros Türk to BC Partners. It would not be until 1993 that Migros would open another foreign supermarket, this time in Thoiry, near Geneva.
1986 saw Migros' first recreation park, Säntispark, in Abtwil.
In 1995, Migros introduced its organic label "Migros Bio" (products which follow the Bio Suisse guidelines). In 2017, it added a specific label for organic products containing at least 90% Swiss ingredients ("Migros Bio Suisse").
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In October 2012, one of the federations, Genossenschaft Migros Zürich, expanded in the German market by acquiring the Hessian food store chain Tegut. In the same year, Migros opened the first Swiss store of German organic supermarket chain Alnatura. In 2013, however, the company announced the sale to the REWE retail group of its four Migros-branded stores in Germany, the first of which had established in 1995 in Lörrach, near Basel.
In 2016, Migros announced that it would phase-out free plastic bags at check-out. Migros had tested the measure in the Canton of Vaud since 2013: the measure had reduced the number of plastic bags distributed by ninety percent (and saved 100,000 francs per year). Migros was the first to introduce the measure across the country, on 1 November 2016. The company also announced that profits from the remaining sale of plastic bags would be invested in environmental projects.
In 2024-2025, Migros sold several companies of the group (bike, do-it-yourself, electronics, furniture, and sport shops, travel agencies, and cosmetics factories) to focus on four fields within Switzerland (grocery stores, non-food retail, banking, and health).
In 2026, due to lack of profitability of the Tegut chain since the purchase back in 2013, Genossenschaft Migros Zürich sold off two-thirds of the company's 300 branches to German rival Edeka and liquidated the rest of the chain to focus on its home market.
Philosophy
Gottlieb Duttweiler was concerned about the health of his customers and decided that Migros would not sell any alcoholic beverages nor any tobacco. It is still the case today; although Denner, owned by the Migros group, does sell alcoholic beverages and cigarettes.
Here is a summary of some characteristics of Migros and its "responsible" philosophy guided by Gottlieb and Adele Duttweiler's "fifteen theses":
Does not sell any alcoholic beverages nor any tobacco (It does so on its online shop, however);
Does not pay any dividends;
If the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) reaches 5% of the market value of the company, the supermarkets have to lower their prices;
Organised as a cooperative (federation of regional cooperatives), with more than two million shareholders;
Every adult living in Switzerland can become a member (receive a share for free) and vote at the general assembly;
Uses 1% of its revenue to social and cultural projects.
Migros was also a prominent supporter of women's suffrage in Switzerland, it financed a considerable amount of the yes campaigns in the different cantons and also the two national referendums in 1959 and 1971. It counted with an in-house women suffrage committee and for the yes campaign of the successful national referendum in 1971, Migros gave out paper bags printed with advertising for the yes campaign. In its weekly company magazine, which counted with a circulation of about 600,000 magazines, it published articles supporting women's suffrage ahead of the referendum for several weeks.
Adèle and Gottlieb Duttweiler's "fifteen theses" (1950), without being legally binding, are an ethical heritage of Migros. They contain values and guidance such as a goal of "serving the community", "The general principle that we profess is to place people at the center of the economy" and "The general interest will be placed higher than the interests of the Migros cooperatives".
The company attracted controversy, however, when in 1977 it fired its most outspoken internal critic, Hans A. Pestalozzi, who was then working for the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, a think tank whose goal was to investigate the shortcomings of capitalism in modern society.
In 2021, Migros began considering alcohol sales in its supermarkets. A June 2022 vote was held and the sale of alcohol was rejected by each of the ten regional cooperatives by an overwhelming majority of their members.
From Wikipedia’s article on Migros, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4