Founded almost 140 years ago in Aarau, Chocolat Frey will only be distributed in Migros supermarkets. Attempts to become known abroad with the brand will be abandoned. Sales in airport shops are one of them.
Daniel Vizentini / chmedia
Migros is restructuring its industrial companies. This week, a major change was announced at the subcontractor Delica. Delica is responsible for the production of Skaï chewing gum, Crème d’Or ice cream, Royal coffee capsules and Frey chocolates.
255 jobs will be cut, 190 of them in Switzerland. At Chocolat Frey in Buchs, 26 jobs will be lost. This is because Migros will withdraw the Frey brand from its foreign operations in the future. The brand will thus lose prestige compared to Lindt or Cailler.
Frey was expanding
Not so long ago, Frey’s strategy was still focused on expansion: they wanted to strengthen the brand abroad. In the United States, for example, the 2019 ad presented Frey as “Switzerland’s #1 Chocolate Brand.”
“In Switzerland, we don’t say chocolate, we say Frey”
The chocolate made in Buchs was distributed throughout the United States in the drugstore chain Walgreens. It was also planned to sell the Frey chocolate on Amazon. Previously, Migros had also invested a lot of money to be present in airport duty-free shops.
“In Switzerland, we don’t say chocolate. We say Frey,” we can still read on the Delica website, translated from English. Germany, China, Israel and the Gulf region in the Middle East are currently cited as the markets in which Chocolat Frey is still present.
End of contract for Frey International
As Migros spokeswoman Carmen Hefti confirmed to us, Frey’s strategy will soon end:
“Active distribution of the Frey brand abroad will be stopped after fulfilling all obligations to our customers and partners.”
Travel-retail activities, i.e. duty-free shops, would also be affected. There, the market is left to other Swiss brands. On the other hand, on-board chocolate, offered in economy class on Swiss flights, is not affected by this withdrawal: this collaboration, in which Migros earns nothing and which is only used for marketing, has been extended for three years in March.
It will still be possible to buy Frey chocolate in Migros stores in Switzerland, although more chocolates from competitors Lindt and Toblerone have recently been included in the assortment. By retiring from overseas activities, Frey’s legacy in Buchs was further diminished. Founded in 1887 in Aarau, the brand was taken over by Migros in 1950. In 2020, the visitor center near the chocolate factory in Buchs was closed.
And he is forty years old
