Bata closes all branches in Switzerland
The shoe retailer Bata is to close its 29 Swiss stores and concentrate on online retailing. The company announced this after several newspapers had previously speculated about store closures.
On Monday, various media, including the Handelszeitungciting information from the trade union Unia, reported that "many of the 29 Bata branches" will close. The first redundancies have already been announced. It was not initially known how many branches would be affected.
On Monday evening, Bata announced that it was withdrawing completely from the Swiss retail market and closing all its stores. The company cites the growing online trade, shopping tourism and increasing competition from other fashion retailers as the reasons for this. In future, Bata intends to sell its shoes via online channels and multi-brand retailers.
Headquartered in Lausanne, Bata is one of the largest shoe retailers in the world and has 4,600 stores in over 60 countries. (ah)
