Migros says goodbye to electronics store Melectronics
Published: Tuesday, Jun 18th 2024, 12:20
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The new, leaner Migros is taking shape. Melectronics goes to Mediamarkt. The retailer also wants to divest itself of other subsidiaries. Many employees will have to look for a new job.
Migros has now found a buyer for Melectronics: It is selling 20 of its 37 consumer electronics stores to Mediamarkt. The remaining 17 will be closed, as Migros announced on Tuesday.
The acquired stores will continue to operate under the Mediamarkt brand. The brand change will take place gradually and should be completed by November 2024, as Mediamarkt announced the same day.
The locations not taken over will be closed by November 2024. The approximately 100 employees affected by the closures will be offered other positions within or outside the Migros Group where possible. In the meantime, the employees and apprentices at the acquired locations will transfer to Mediamarkt. According to the social partner KV Schweiz, Mediamarkt is also taking on 18 apprentices from stores that are being closed.
The sale of Melectronics will also lead to changes in around 50 larger supermarket branches. There, the integrated Melectronics sales areas will be reduced to a basic range of electronics items.
Micasa, Bike World and Do it + Garden in the shop window
The retailer also intends to divest further subsidiaries. Micasa, Bike World and Do it + Garden are now under review. As long as the sales process is ongoing, all businesses will continue to operate as normal. Migros had already announced the sale of its eyewear and hearing aid subsidiary Misenso to Neuroth at the beginning of June.
However, the sales process for SportX, which was launched in February, has not yet been completed. Migros is also still looking for new owners for its travel subsidiary Hotelplan and the cosmetics subsidiary Mibelle. Finally, the future of OBI is still unclear. Migros operates ten locations of the DIY chain as a franchisee.
Many jobs are lost
However, there was definitive news on the planned downsizing of Migros Industry. In future, it will concentrate on its role as a producer for the Migros Group in Switzerland and on the production of private labels for third parties.
Part of this realignment includes changes at food manufacturer Delica, milk processor Elsa and Migros Industry, which operates across the board. A reduction of around 365 jobs is therefore unfortunately unavoidable, Migros wrote.
As a result, Migros speaks of a total of around 415 jobs - 50 at Fachmarkt AG, 255 at Delica, 45 at Elsa and 65 at Migros-Industry - that have been lost.
They are part of the announced transformation of Migros with the reduction of up to 1,500 of the approximately 100,000 jobs in the entire group. In addition, up to 100 more employees could now lose their jobs if no follow-up solution is found for those affected by the Melectronics closures.
According to Migros, there is a social plan to cushion the impact. Nevertheless, the trade union Unia reacted with dismay: Migros should invest more in its employees instead of wasting millions on McKinsey management consultants, the union said.
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