Switzerland's health food chain Muller declares bankruptcy

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ISTANBUL (AA) – Switzerland’s largest health foods chain Muller declared bankruptcy on Tuesday, as stores were conducting their last sales during the day.

Muller Reformhaus Vital Shop said in a statement that 37 stores that employ 298 staff will be closed due to falling customer frequency, adding that the retailer never fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and faced increased competition from digital shopping which became a standard following the lockdowns.

"Customer frequency has been declining since 2016 in our industry and sales in the spring of 2021 plummeted again,” the long-established chain, which was founded in 1929, said.

It added that the slump continued to this day and has "intensified even further" in the second half of 2022.

"Every day our employees were confronted with the statement that our offer was too expensive," Muller said. "On the other hand, for economic reasons we were not able to improve the employment conditions of our workforce in the long term."