Switzerland’s leading outpatient care provider, Medbase has established itself as a key player in the healthcare sector. The company, which belongs to the Migros group, is mainly present in German-speaking Switzerland, but aims to expand to French-speaking Switzerland, according to its director Marcel Napierala.
With 4,200 employees, 70 medical centers, 57 pharmacies, 42 dental clinics, more than 20 physiotherapy practices and an online pharmacy, Medbase has become a sprawling private group in the health field in around twenty years. The company focuses on integrated care, bringing together different providers under one roof, for greater efficiency.
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Created in 2001 in Winterthur (ZH) by Marcel Napierala and two physiotherapist colleagues, the firm was joined in 2010 by the Migros group. Initially a shareholder, the retailer then became full owner of the company. A winning bet for the orange giant since in 2024, Medbase achieved a turnover of 1.5 billion francs, an increase of 25.7%, announced Migros.
Migros is an actor who offers us more opportunities than risks
But why did a company active in retail enter the competitive healthcare sector? “Migros has values, a Swiss tradition. At the time, we had major discussions with Migros managers to come into the health sector which is very important for this group […] It was my wish to have a shareholder like Migros, because it is a new player in this game which offers us more chances than risks,” explains Marcel Napierala in La Matinale.
The profitability of the company is obviously also an argument that weighed in the balance, even if “profitability in health is always difficult, because we work with very low margins in the primary care sector, which means that we have to be very efficient to earn a little money,” explains the Bernese.
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“We learn from Migros”
In this respect, Marcel Napierala recognizes that his company was able to benefit from Migros processes, despite two very different sectors from each other. “We learn from them, because they know how to manage costs very strongly. But the synergies are also limited, we are specialists in the health sector and they in retail, that must remain separate. It’s like data , we must not mix the data from the cumulus map with our data,” jokes the director.
From a development perspective, Medbase intends to continue its expansion begun 6 years ago in French-speaking Switzerland, where it already has nine medical centers and will open a tenth in Bulle (FR) in the second quarter of 2025.
Medbase must, however, deal with a different sensitivity of French-speaking people, reluctant to entrust their health to private actors, as the result of the vote of November 24 on EFAS showed.
-“At the beginning, in Romandie, everyone was a little suspicious. But today, we have a large flow of doctors, for example, who are interested in our model, because they noticed that we were not an organization that wants to maximize its profits […] Of course, you have to be profitable to implement innovations, to invest, but the most important thing is the patient”, analyzes Marcel Napierala.
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Walmart, the bad example
In the United States, the American multinational Walmart, also active in mass distribution, had tried a similar experiment. Result: a bitter failure. Last fall, management announced it was withdrawing from the sector, closing several medical centers.
Marcel Napierala says he studied the case of Walmart. According to him, the American company moved much too quickly: “They took an approach with a lot of pace. In Switzerland, the culture is different. Migros’ positioning is different, they let us work, we have a certain autonomy to grow our business.”
Integrated care as a solution
Faced with the increase in health costs and the shortage of manpower affecting care, the director of Medbase therefore preaches for integrated care and the entry of new professions into the ambulatory field, such as provision of medical services carried out by nursing staff, or carried out in pharmacies.
I am convinced that we must put the public with the private, work together
But for that, you need a helping hand. “Politics must help us, because we must have the licenses, we must have the possibility of financing these procedures. I feel a strong political intention to want to help in these processes. We are also discussing with the insurers,” specifies Marcel Napierala .
With its integrated care system, the CEO of Medbase believes, however, that it is not doing “better or worse” than the public sector. He is also fighting for the introduction of electronic patient records. “It is naturally our big dream. But I am convinced that we must put the public with the private sector, work together. The public is there to provide the infrastructure and we, as service providers, we are there to provide it. efficient processes, because it is our know-how”, he concludes.
Comments collected by Pietro Bugnon
Web article: Jérémie Favre
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