Working As A Lobbyist For A Swiss Supermarket Giant

Martin Schläpfer was once the face of Swiss retailer Migros in the halls of parliament. He talks to SWI swissinfo.ch about the values the group's founder represented and the secrets to successful lobbying.

Thomas Kern was born in Switzerland in 1965. Trained as a photographer in Zürich, he started working as a photojournalist in 1989. He was a founder of the Swiss photographers agency Lookat Photos in 1990. Thomas Kern has won twice a World Press Award and has been awarded several Swiss national scholarships. His work has been widely exhibited and it is represented in various collections.

• Deutsch (de) lobbyist für einen der grössten schweizer supermärkte (original)
• Español (es) lobista de uno de los mayores supermercados suizos
• 中文 (zh) 瑞士大超市migros走的是合作社路线
• عربي (ar) مُدافع شرس عن مصالح أكبر مجموعة تجارية تعاونية في سويسرا
• Pусский (ru) что значит быть лоббистом ведущей сети супермаркетов швейцарии?
• 日本語 (ja) スイスの元最強ロビイスト「ミグロマン」
• Italiano (it) lobbista per uno dei maggiori distributori al dettaglio svizzeri

Are you a“Migros child” or a“Coop child”? In Switzerland this question is laden with meaning. It refers to where the family does its weekly shopping, but not just: identification with one of the country's main supermarket chains runs deep. Where you shop is a matter of faith.

Martin Schläpfer, born in 1955, grew up next to a Migros. When he was a child, the retailer's founder, Gottlieb Duttweiler, was often a topic of family conversation.

“For as long as I can remember, I knew that 'Dutti' was not only a brilliant businessman,” says Schläpfer,“but also a man with a political agenda and ideas about what he wanted to change in this country.”

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  The Migros story began with five mobile food trucks in Zurich. On August 25, 1925 Migros began operating five trucks, which were able to deliver products to 178 locations in the Swiss city. Keystone
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  Migros founder Gottlieb Duttweiler opened the first store in Schaffhausen in 1928. Sales took place only over the counter. MGB-Archiv, MGB_Dok_Fo_062970
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  In 1941 Migros AG became a cooperative. This photo from 1942 shows a meeting of the Migros cooperative members. MGB-Archiv, MGB_Dok_Fo_133684
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  The first self-service Migros store in Zurich in 1948. Keystone
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  Migros is more than a retailer. In 1954 it launched Migrol, which offered cheap petrol. Keystone
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  The opening of a Migros supermarket in Oerlikon in 1956. Keystone
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  A Migros sales truck in Le Sentier, canton Jura, 1958. MGB-Archiv, MGB_Dok_Fo_111842
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  Gottlieb Duttweiler (1888-1962), founder of Migros, in Oerlikon on April 9, 1960. Keystone
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  Migros Bank AG opened in 1957. Originally it was only intended to handle Migros's financial transactions, but it quickly developed into a customer bank. MGB_Archiv, MGB_Dok_Fo_069714
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  Migros experimented with self-service supermarket tills in the 1960s. The aim was to eliminate long waiting times. After four years, the experiment was quietly abandoned. It was not until 2011 that the idea was taken up again. MGB-Archiv, MGB_Dok_Fo_057221
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  Migros produces many of its own products, such as bread and cakes. Keystone
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  Kid-sized caddies at a Migros supermarket in Zürich, 2002. Keystone / Martin Ruetschi
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  A Migros truck in the village of Unterbüch in canton Valais, 2003. Keystone / Franca Pedrazzetti
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  A Migros warehouse and logistics centre in Neuendorf, 2015. The automated system transports goods at -27 degrees Celsius. Keystone / Gaetan Bally
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  Activists demonstrate in front of a Migros in Lausanne against the sales of foie gras, November 24, 2018. Keystone / Laurent Gillieron
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  During the Covid-19 pandemic part of the non-food selection of products was declared off limits and not for sale, April 2020. Keystone / Urs Flueeler
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  Since 1928, there has been a ban on the sale of alcohol in Migros branches. In June 2022, voters at Migros regional cooperatives decided overwhelmingly that Switzerland's largest retailer should not start selling alcohol. . Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

Coop and Migros are both cooperatives and thus rooted in the population millions of times over. More than a quarter of the Swiss population are Migros members. Membership is free. Coop has even slightly more members, although membership costs CHF10 ($10.80) a year.

Schläpfer worked for Migros – but not at the supermarket checkout. From 2003 to 2018, he was a lobbyist for Migros inside the federal parliament and the last of his kind: a“Migros man”. The retail group, which used to have its say in Swiss politics with its own party, no longer sends lobbyists to parliament.

Over coffee and biscuits, Schläpfer recalls his days of defending the company's interests in politics.

SWI swissinfo.ch: How did you proceed when you wanted to lobby for an issue?

Martin Schläpfer: It was quite straightforward, really. Today I lecture on politics and lobbying. A lot of it comes down to political intuition and experience. It does make a difference, of course, whether you are dealing with shop opening hours or agriculture, but to a certain extent there is a textbook procedure.

SWI: What was this procedure?

M.S.: The first question was whether the government was for or against a given issue. The method is completely different if you have the backing of the government and the administration or you don't.

SWI: Were there matters that you were able to push through against the will of the government?

M.S. : Yes, parallel imports – that is, the liberalisation of goods imports. On this we stood united with consumer protection groups and prevailed against Justice Minister Christoph Blocher. Migros is an incredibly strong brand. It has more clout than a trade association. If Migros wants something, then the tabloid media always takes it up immediately – unlike for brands that are less well known.

Migros regularly tops rankings of the most popular brands in Switzerland. In 2023, however, it slipped to second place. But the following is as true today as it was in the past: Migros creates identity. Its defining colour is orange. The Migros magazine boasts relatively high circulation numbers, and customers discuss the quality of frozen seafood or chestnut yoghurts on the“Migipedia” platform.

Migros is one of Switzerland's largest employers: 100,000 people from 170 different countries work for the group, the vast majority of them in Switzerland. In terms of sales, it hit an all-time record in 2022: CHF30.1 billion ($32.1 billion) were generated in the supermarkets and by the group's branches in the travel, catering and health sectors.

Since his retirement, Schläpfer has not left Migros behind entirely. His loyalty is not to today's company, but to the ideals that he associates with Migros.

M.S.: In 2003, I was confident that Migros – in the spirit of its founder – would renew its commitment to the interests of consumers. Of course, we did not try to interpret Duttweiler as theologians do the Bible, but he did represent clear values.

SWI: What were those values?
M.S.: Above all the ban on alcohol. Migros still allocates a percentage of its annual turnover to cultural and social projects. Its political commitment is no longer so deeply entrenched today. The outcome of the vote on alcohol shows that Dutti's core message is now more present in the cooperative base than in the company's management.

The ban on the sale of alcohol has been enshrined in Migros' statutes since 1928. When the group's leadership wanted to start selling alcohol in its supermarkets in 2022, the roughly 2.3 million Migros cooperative members were asked to vote on the issue.

Together with other former executives, Schläpfer launched a campaign against the plan: he did not want to see any alcohol on Migros' shelves. The vast majority of the 630,000 cooperative members who eventually cast a vote felt the same way.

Once the outcome was known, Swiss media outlets proclaimed:“The vote was the biggest PR coup of the year.” The cooperative had successfully attracted people's attention to Migros, they wrote, and the high voter participation had strengthened the company.

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