Migros reportedly considers merging or reducing its ten regional cooperatives

Migros is reportedly working on a reorganisation of its own cooperative structure. That is what NZZ am Sonntag reports, citing sources close to the matter. The Swiss retail group currently comprises ten regional cooperatives.

According to the Sunday paper, chief executive Mario Irmiger has spoken in favour of a single cooperative for the whole group. The ongoing discussions reportedly also cover an intermediate option, reducing the number to three regional cooperatives, alongside the possibility of a complete merger into one single entity.

The sources cited by the Sunday paper do not agree on the timing of the plan. One of them says an agreement is close. Others report instead that the group is trying to carry out the restructuring without submitting it to a general vote of the cooperative members.

Contacted by NZZ am Sonntag, Migros did not deny working internally on a new organisation. The company stated, however, that no final decision has been made for the time being.

Fewer cooperatives, fewer votes?

The shift from ten cooperatives to three, or to a single one, would change the group's decision-making structure. Today, each regional cooperative has its own management structure and its own general assembly; a merger would concentrate these powers in a few bodies, or in just one.

A leaner structure could ease the administrative costs of maintaining several regional boards and assemblies across the country. This is, according to the information gathered by the Sunday paper, an efficiency argument that has reportedly already convinced the group's management, more so than a simple reduction in the number of sites.

The question of method remains open, though. If the reorganisation were to proceed, as some sources indicate, without a general vote of the cooperative members, the question would arise of how much say members still have over a decision that redesigns the group's entire structure. A formal consultation would require time and organisational resources, but would remain the tool through which the membership expresses a view on a change of this scale.