Zug,30.05.2016

High value of Swiss franc and people doing their shopping abroad make retailing here very difficult

It is not easy for anyone involved in the retail trade at present, as André Odermatt, the president of the Pro-Zug Association recently confirmed. He mentioned the high value of the Swiss franc, people from here going across the national borders to do their shopping as well as buying on the internet as the main causes of the problems. Nevertheless, there are some advantages in being able to trade here in the canton, the 53-year-old went on to explain.
 
The Pro-Zug Association (VPZ) is an umbrella organisation representing some 210 trading and service-providing businesses in the city of Zug with special reference to the retail trade. A number of other associations, such as those representing businesses in the Old Town, at the Metalli Centre, on Bahnhofstrasse and Alpenstrasse, and at the station, to mention just a few, are also members.
 
Odermatt (main photograph) is the proprietor of the Lederwaren AG company, which sells and repairs leather bags from premises at number 3 Gotthardstrasse measuring just six square metres. It is here, too, amid tools for this and that, countless drawers and boxes, sewing machines and everything else that is required in this business, where Elena Moos, from Walchwil (second photograph) works. Aged 19, she is kept very busy in this highly specialised job, which actually accounts for one third of the turnover of the company.
 
“In our business, which incidentally celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, you need to do more than just sell things, hence our repair service,” said Odermatt, as he explained how larger businesses just did not offer this these days. In fact he can also help repair Samsonite cases if need be, too, from slightly larger premises of his on Industriestrasse. He was pleased to be able to say that there was more variety of shops on Zug’s Bahnhofstrasse than the one in Zurich, where even shops like Franz Carl Weber, which sells toys, can no longer afford the exorbitant rents.
 
Fortunately, the situation for small and medium-sized businesses in Zug is not quite as acute as it is for those in Zurich, though rents for retail businesses here in Zug are also a problem for some. “What can you do? You just have to accept them,” he said. “I could not afford to move to the Metalli Centre.” Hence he carries on as he had done for the past 35 years from these premises on Gotthardstrasse, which are more on the edge of the centre. He benefits much from his regular customers, this location hardly being conducive to passing trade.
 
“What with the high value of the Swiss franc, the competition from internet shopping and people popping over the country’s borders to do their shopping, running a retail business is a continual struggle these days,” he said. He acknowledged how the Benetton fashion store and Belmondo picture-framing service had had to close down recently, but it he felt it was actually the more small-town nature of Zug, with its greater number of small specialist shops, which has led to it being one of the more attractive shopping towns in the region. “And there are always shops like C&A, H&M and Zara elsewhere, too,” he added. “What has helped us greatly has been the new car-park routing system. It is good, too, that there will be more parking facilities on Postplatz in the future.”
 
Odermatt has noticed how, in recent years, the character of the city has become more like that of satellite town, with thousands of commuters coming here between Mondays and Fridays but with things much quieter at weekends, when some cafés and restaurants do not even open. He felt he city revolved very much round business life, with more needing to be done to lure tourists here, especially at weekends. He thought there were too many regulations in force in the Old Town which prevented it from being livened up more. “We do have the Christmas market taking place there now,” he said, “and I am very much behind the Tourist Board’s efforts to promote it, but we need a few more restaurants there to liven it all up a bit more.”