The Swiss shoe retail chain Vögele Shoes is on the verge of going out of business. In view of the renewed drop in sales, “the board of directors and management, in consultation with the responsible administrator, have decided to discontinue the business activities of Vögele Shoes, probably by the end of 2022 at the latest,” the parent company Karl Vögele AG announced on Tuesday. 27 branches and 131 employees are affected by the decision.
The financially troubled company, which has been owned by Hanover-based Cm.shoes GmbH since last summer, applied for a provisional debt restructuring moratorium in June, i.e. a form of insolvency proceedings under Swiss law. This was converted into a definitive debt restructuring moratorium in mid-October, which was actually supposed to last until February 13, 2023. But now the process was prematurely terminated.
In recent weeks, as part of its restructuring efforts, the retailer has “significantly reduced the branch network and staff in order to transfer at least a substantial part of the company and jobs to an economically viable future,” the company said. However, business has “not developed as planned” since the start of the proceedings. In addition, talks “with various investors” were unsuccessful.
Owner Christian Müller complains about a “bitter day”
Christian Müller, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and owner of Karl Vögele AG, spoke of a “bitter day” and described the ultimately fatal development: “In the past month in particular – i.e. since the definitive debt restructuring moratorium was approved – we have had a massive and unpredictable decline of demand, which acutely calls our revised overall strategy into question,” he said in a statement. “Despite the enormous efforts of our employees and the great goodwill on the part of our partners, the board of directors and management and the administrator do not see a sustainable future for the company under the given circumstances.”
The retailer now only has a few weeks left. “Discussions are currently being held with partners and suppliers in order to organize the processing of locations and inventories by the end of the year,” the company explained. After that, “Voegele Shoes will be completely discontinued”.