The story
Valora goes back to the Schweizer Chocoladen & Colonialhaus, which was founded in Olten, Switzerland in 1905, which later became known as Merkur AG. The company was initially created to sell coffee and chocolate.
In 1986, Merkur AG was made into a holding company, Merkur Holding AG, and in 1996, the company was renamed to today's Valora Holding AG.
In 2009, Valora generated 3 billion Swiss francs in turnover and employed 6,500 staff (on a full-time equivalent basis).
Valora Trade took over Engelschiøn Marwell Hauge AS (EMH) in 2010 and thus opened up the sales and distribution of cosmetic products in Norway. In 2011, Valora Trade took over Scandinavian Cosmetics (ScanCo) and thus acquired access to cosmetic distribution in Sweden.
In 2012, Valora has acquired the Ditsch / Brezelkönig group of companies, a nationwide chain of pretzel stores, for 100 million euros. In October 2013, Michael Müller was named CEO of the group.
In 2014, Valora sold Valora Services to Thomas Kirschner, the majority shareholder of Presse-Vertriebs-Gesellschaft. On the other hand, the small-scale retailer Naville in French-speaking Switzerland was acquired.
In 2015, Valora was preparing to launch consumer loans available throughout its network of kiosques. The company completed the sale of its Trade division to Aurelius Group.
In 2017, Valora acquired the franchise business BackWerk based in Germany as well as the pretzel producer Pretzel Baron in the US.
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In 2019, the company launched the autonomous, cashier-free convenience store avec box at Zurich main station.
In mid-2021, Valora announced a collaboration with Moveri and the takeover of the operation of 39 service station stores with its avec format. At the end of the year, Valora acquired the German snack professional Back-Factory and announced the rollout of around 300 k kiosk vending machines throughout Switzerland by the end of 2022.
In June 2022, Valora strengthened its collaboration with Oel-Pool / Moveri and announced the conversion of another 71 of the service station shops into avec stores. In July 2022, Valora acquired Frittenwerk, a trendy format based in Germany.
In 2022, Fomento Económico Mexicano (FEMSA) announced an acquisition of Valora for up to $1.2bn. The acquisition was completed on 7 October 2022.
From Wikipedia’s article on Valora (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5