Vögele Shoes to cease trading

Vögele Shoes remained an independent family business until 2018 Keystone / Steffen Schmidt

Switzerland’s second-biggest shoe chain Vögele Shoes will cease trading at the end of the year. The measure affects 131 employees.

The St Gallen-based company, which has been granted a four-month moratorium, has been unable to convince new investors or turn around its financial situation in the face of an unpredictable and massive decline in demand since last October.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, Vögele Shoes said it had obtained a four-month debt-restructuring moratorium on October 13. It said that in view of the unfavourable business development and the failure of discussions with various investors, the board of directors and the management had decided, in agreement with the relevant commissioner, to terminate the company’s commercial activities, “probably by the end of 2022 at the latest”.

Vögele Shoes added that it was in close contact with the 131 employees affected by the decision, the trade unions and human resources specialists. Discussions are also underway with partners and suppliers in order to organise the orderly winding down of sites and stocks of goods by the end of the year.

Covid effect

The company has its roots in a cobbler’s shop opened by Karl Vögele in Uznach, northeastern Switzerland, in 1922. Vögele expanded the range to include mail-order shoe sales in 1955. The following year he opened the first shoe fashion shop in Chur.

It remained an independent family business until 2018, when it was bought by the Polish CCC Group. It was then sold to German company cm.shoes last year. Shareholders wanted to lead the group “into an even more digital future”, they said at the time.

Vögele Shoes had already been struggling with falling sales before Covid, but the pandemic and associated temporary closures were the final straw.