Type Public Founded 1997 Revenue 176 million CHF (2015) Parent organization Migros | Website www.leshop.ch Number of employees 308 Headquarters Écublens, Vaud | |
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Industry Retail, ecommerce, online shopping Key people Dominique Locher (CEO), Sacha Herrmann (COO) | ||
LeShop.ch is a Swiss online supermarket and one of Europe’s largest online grocery stores. In the first quarter of 2006, it was the first to achieve break-even after Great Britain’s Tesco.com.
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LeShop.ch ended 2013 with uninterrupted growth and a 6% or CHF9 million increase in turnover to CHF 158.1. LeShop.ch increased sales by CHF 7 million to CHF 165 million in 2014.
As of the end of 2013, the company had about 50,000 regular customers.
The supermarket offers a unique mix of goods including Migros products as well as branded goods. Groceries, frozen foods and other essentials, articles for home and hobbies are delivered directly to the customer’s door, covering 95% of Swiss households in all regions.
1997 to 2003
October 1997: LeShop SA was founded by young entrepreneurs Alain Nicod, Jesús Martín García, Rémi Walbaum, and Christian Wanner. It went online in April 1998 as Switzerland’s first online supermarket, offering more than 1,500 dry grocery products and teaming up with the Swiss Post for home deliveries throughout the country. In June 2000, subsidiaries were founded in Germany and Argentina. Both these were closed down again at a later date.
August 2001: Switzerland’s first e-commerce logistics centre, planned and executed by LeShop.ch started operating in Bremgarten, Aargau. An exclusive partnership deal with ExpressPost ensured the timely delivery of orders.
December 2002: The Bon appétit Group, a majority shareholder of LeShop SA since October 2002, decided to refocus on its core business and announced the closure of LeShop.ch at the end of that month.
January 2003: LeShop.ch was saved when investment group ShoppingNet Holding SA together with the company’s management acquired the LeShop.ch from the Bon appétit Group.
September 2003: Official announcement of the strategic partnership with Migros, initially without the financial participation by the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund, MGB).
2004: Takeover
January 2004: When Migros closed down its own migros-shop.ch website, LeShop.ch took over the Migros product range as well as its customers.
Until 2013
In April 2006, LeShop.ch ended the first quarter of 2006 with the company’s first ever operating profit. The Federation of Migros Cooperatives acquired an 80% share in LeShop SA, launching an investment programme for future development. In October 2006, the second LeShop.ch logistics centre was inaugurated by the then Trade Minister and Swiss Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard in Ecublens. The company’s headquarters were also transferred to Ecublens, Vaud. After ten years’ trading, LeShop.ch exceeded the turnover benchmark of CHF100 million in November 2008. In June 2009, LeShop.ch introduced the home delivery of frozen foods and developed a reusable cool box containing dry ice. An iPhone app was launched in January 2010. Cooperation with discount supermarket chain Denner, another subsidiary of Migros, began in August 2011, allowing customers to buy a range of popular Denner wines at LeShop.ch In December 2011, LeShop.ch broke even, becoming one of the world’s first profitable pure players in the online grocery business. In July 2012, a special iPad app was launched. By April 2013, one in every three orders was being placed via iPad or iPhone, showing that mobile internet had established itself as a strong growth factor.
New initiatives
The first LeShop.ch DRIVE was opened in October 2012. The concept of on-location stocking with orders possible up to two hours before the collection of the goods was an innovation in the Swiss market.
LeShop.ch has plans to open a second DRIVE location in Staufen, Aargau, in the second half of 2014.
According to media reports, the opening of a second pilot DRIVE site, located in Staufen, Canton of Aargau (Switzerland) in September 2014, got off to a good start. For the first time, the online supermarket is now available for the whole central region of German-speaking Switzerland. Also since 2014, about 300 eco-friendly Alnatura products can be ordered on LeShop.ch – the only Swiss supplier of this collection.
The trial launch of the pilot RAIL project with Swiss Federal Railways SBB was completed in 2014. The findings and experiences will be incorporated into the project’s further development.
These innovations already led to positive business results in 2014. LeShop.ch continued to grow, with online sales of groceries reaching CHF 165 million. This is CHF 7 million or 4.4% more than the previous year. "The online business is growing at an above-average rate".
In 2015, sales at the online supermarket grew by 6,6% to a total of CHF 176 million. The number of employees grew to 308. The same year LeShop.ch began a pilot scheme involving eleven "PickMup collection points", allowing online customers to collect their pre-packed groceries the day after placing their orders. Income statement figures have so far not been published.
Management and administration
At the end of September 2013, co-founder Christian Wanner handed over his responsibilities as CEO to Dominique Locher, who had been Sales and Marketing Director since 2000. Former Director of Finances and Human Resources, Sacha Herrmann, was appointed Chief Operating Officer and continues to support the Board in his new function. Christian Wanner remains on as a member of the Board of Directors.