German organic chain Alnatura to leave Switzerland

Alnatura will close all 25 stores in Switzerland by the end of the year. The German organic supermarket chain was unable to find a new franchisee after Migros terminated the agreement.

Brand does not disappear

Since 2012, Alnatura had a franchise agreement with Swiss market leader Migros, but the latter announced earlier this year that it would not renew the contract. As the search for a new franchise partner was unsuccessful, the 25 stores will close – they will remain open until 31 December 2025, Lebensmittel Zeitung reports. The 260 or so employees affected will be offered other positions within the Migros group. For the premises, the retailer is looking for solutions both internally and with external players.

However, the Alnatura brand will not disappear completely from the market: the products will remain available in Migros supermarkets, where the range will even be expanded. Migros partnered with Alnatura at the time because it was lagging behind its rival Coop, in terms of organic offerings. But since then, the range of organic products in regular supermarkets has grown considerably, while there is also a lot of competition from smaller, specialised organic shops.

In Germany, Alnatura is the second largest organic supermarket chain, with more than 150 stores.