"Relevance is the driving force behind all decisions"

Location: Top location in Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse, right at the front, a stone's throw from Lake Zurich. Object: Bongénie, a luxury store that has just opened at this location. The boss: Loïc Brunschwig, 31 years young, determined. The central question: To what extent is such a statement store relevant?

Text: Dörte Welti. Photos: Bongenie

We meet a relaxed Loïc Brunschwig in the Emile von Bongénie restaurant, one of the assets that make up this house, of necessity, but more on that later. A brief recap: in 1913, the Grieder fashion house, founded by Adolf Grieder in 1889 as the leading silk fabric distributor at the time, moved into an imposing building on Paradeplatz in Zurich as a tenant. In 1972, the business was sold to the Geneva-based family company Brunschwig & Cie. who had been running a similar business in French-speaking Switzerland since 1891 under the name Bon Génie. Grieder remained under its name as a luxury fashion department store. In 2015, the Swatch Group bought the historic building on Paradeplatz (for 400 million Swiss francs) and did not renew the lease of Brunschwig & Cie SA, as the company is now known. In a lengthy process, Brunschwig tried to retain the historic location, but lost before the Federal Court. Time was of the essence, a new location had to be found, which was then found 250 meters further on at Bahnhofstrasse 3. The decision to relocate was made in 2020, but the commercial building dating back to 1880, in which Brunschwig rented 4,000 square meters, was completely renovated by the owners, the Stiftung und Genossenschaft Baugarten Zürich. A project that had already been launched in 2015 and was in full swing. The ambitious plan to move into the new premises before Christmas 2024 had to be abandoned in the course of the construction work. The opening then took place in the first weeks of February 2025.

Loïc Brunschwig, what do you associate with the term relevance?

Loïc Brunschwig, CEO Bongénie, Brunschwig & Cie SAI find it interesting that they want to talk about relevance. It was an eye-opener for me when I was preparing for our interview. Of course, relevance drives all your decisions. You have to be relevant. Our static stores are relevant to us. Our first point of sale is Geneva, the second has always been Grieder in Zurich. Both stores account for almost a quarter of our sales. So if we had a large branch in Geneva and no more in Zurich, we would lose a lot of sales and still have high costs for the back office and head office that we have to cover. A significant volume is therefore relevant for us. In addition, this project gave us a great opportunity to find a location on Bahnhofstrasse that we could build from scratch. The whole process has now taken eight years.

Eight years ago, you had barely finished school.

That's right. Eight years ago, I had just finished my business studies. But I wasn't involved in the Grieder relocation project right from the start. I had worked in the digital and marketing department of our company for two and a half years and then went to Union Bancaire Privée UBP for a year, which incidentally is now our neighbor on Bahnhofstrasse, but that's a coincidence. I wasn't involved in the whole process with the Swatch Group, I only joined when we were able to sign for this new location.

It's worth mentioning that you are very young for a CEO of such a large family business as Brunschwig & Cie SA.

Before that, my uncle Pierre Brunschwig and my father Nicolas were on the management team together with their cousin Anne-Marie de Picciotto. A good three years ago, they decided to step down from operational management. Anne-Marie and Pierre are pursuing other interests and duties, my father was called to Rolex as Chairman of the Board of Directors, but they remain as shareholders and members of the Board of Directors. They asked me if I wanted to come back, not in the technical role I had before, but to manage the company. I said okay, but could they consider the co-CEO model, because I was only 27, 28 years old. I mean, as a bank employee I was suddenly supposed to manage 550 employees at 18 locations - I didn't think that was a good choice. They said yes and so I started with one of our directors, Paolo Pitton, as co-CEO. Paolo left last year, however, and I have been the sole CEO since spring 2024.

Do you feel left alone?

No, not at all. The family members are very committed, they still have their office on the top floor of the Bongénie store next to mine. We have a good team with people who have been with us for many years. What has changed somewhat since Paolo left is, of course, that there were always two of us for questions from the Group, interviews and various other matters such as meetings with suppliers. Now everything comes to me. The calendar is a bit more complicated.

You mentioned that a quarter of your sales are generated in Geneva and Zurich, but you have 18 sales outlets in total. How is the relevance divided up?

All of them are relevant, of course. We have four large stores in Geneva, Zurich, Lausanne and Basel. The other locations have spaces proportional to the size of the cities; in Lucerne or Bern, 4,000 square meters is not the goal. Having the largest possible sales areas is not our strategy. There are smaller outlets that are very profitable and larger ones that are less profitable. Lucerne, for example, is a very profitable spot, even if it is rather small, boutique-style with maybe 20 brands, for women only, no men's, no children's, no home and beauty department. The location of our stores in the cities is crucial - we regularly have brokers interested in taking over some of our locations.

They also work together with the Max Mara branches in Switzerland.

We hold 50 percent of the shares in the Max Mara stores in Switzerland. Our head office in Geneva is home to accounting, IT, the back office, logistics and everything related to all the operational functions that support the running of these stores. Nationally, we operate around 30 stores in Switzerland either directly or in joint ventures.

Which of today's challenges can be turned into advantages?

We have two online stores. Currently, for various legal and logistical reasons, we only ship our e-commerce orders to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. A logistical decision, but would it really make sense to ship goods to the US when e-commerce is global and there are already so many US shipments? You order socks from Zalando, get the wrong size, send them back by plane. But storage is too expensive for Zalando, so the socks are destroyed. That makes no sense at all. Our real strength in Switzerland is that we deliver everywhere in Switzerland. Not just where we don't have a store, but where there is a store within 30 minutes and the goods can simply be returned. From an ecological point of view, it makes more sense, the shopping experience is better, the reputation is better. When you order online from Bongénie, you know where to find them if you have a problem. The service is there, the history is there.

Back to the new location in Zurich. What did you come up with to attract customers to a static store?

In the past, you only needed good products and a good location. Today, that's no longer enough to attract customers, products are available practically everywhere and a good location in the city center is usually difficult to reach in terms of transport. So we knew that we needed the architecture to make people feel comfortable and happy to come here. The owners of the building asked for a bar and restaurant to be added during the renovation, which we strategically placed on the first floor. In terms of the concept, people should perceive the store as a place to live, as something that attracts them. With service in the shopping areas, we bring you a coffee and you can relax. You are also welcome to take your products home and try them out for three days.

How relevant should Bongénie be for the city of Zurich?

It is very important for us to personalize each location and at the same time connect it to the city. How we choose the personalization for each store depends on the building, on the owner of the chain. For this building, for example, we decided to use only Swiss wood. The stone comes from northern Italy. The building is Leed (stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certified, an international environmental label. We had a lot of rules and restrictions from the owner and the conservation authorities, which we took very seriously. To promote the architectural harmony of the store, we required all brands to keep our ceilings and floors, no shop-in-shop concept with separate boxes. The only exception: Chanel. They opened their first shoe-only store in the world with us, Chanel is a long-standing partner, we have a good relationship. They wanted to realize their area with the architect Peter Marino, who is very well known in the USA, so we let them do it. However, we don't want to be a luxury shopping center, but a store with brands curated by us, our own range, 90 to 95 percent of our turnover comes from our products, which we select ourselves. We are also not a department store, but a specialist store. In the classic sense. Bongénie aims to contribute to making the shopping experience in the city more attractive. There are many international brands in Bahnhofstrasse, but only a few Swiss stores. Rents are high and local tenants have been driven out. We are trying to re-establish this Swissness at Zurich's best address.

Why did the name change from Grieder Bongénie to Bongénie with the move?

The Grieder name is carved in stone at the old location, on the façade of the building, and is protected - even the new owner, the Swatch Group, cannot change that. We had the feeling that we couldn't leave the Grieder building and keep the Grieder name. Out of respect for the building, for the people of Zurich. The name is protected, but Grieder is also a normal family name that is widely used in German-speaking Switzerland. It was logical to choose Bongénie. We also changed the logo at the same time and introduced a new blue signature. Of course, it was important to convey to people that we remain an elegant, traditional Swiss family business. It's also a kind of label, because we don't produce our products ourselves, but we present a selection for the customer. The label should stand for a good price, good products, good service and a good guarantee. Just Bon.

How long can you stay at this location in Zurich?

We have very long-term contracts. We could stay here for between ten and 30 years, but most likely 30 years with the investments we have made.

Where do you want to grow, if at all?

This is based on opportunities. We invest in projects that we consider to be of high quality. We don't aim to open one or two stores a year, that's definitely not a strategy. We know the market situation. The market is not easy, do less and do it better is the philosophy. Of course, we want to improve our existing stores. We have some leases that are expiring and therefore need to be renegotiated. If you're good at what you do, you can improve and more and more customers come because they think we're great, then it's better. We define growth differently. Of course, we try to keep our profitability stable to ensure that we are financially strong enough to stay in business. However, our goal is not to maximize profits and dividends. The family has not paid dividends for about ten years. All the money generated by the company has stayed in the company to support this long-term goal of staying alive as long as possible and having the money to fund some very important projects, such as this project with an investment of over 25 million. For us, growing does not mean that turnover grows with the age of the company. Our goal has always been to pass the company on to the next generation. I am only at the beginning of my generation. It would not be optimistic but presumptuous to say that I can pass the company on to our children, but that is our big goal.

And the children have to take over if the family business survives? Or do you have a choice? Were you able to choose?

You have a choice. I could tell the partners tomorrow: I want to study law or medicine or go to an island, sell sandwiches and surf. I can decide freely, I have no obligations. But of course you're involved from an early age when you grow up in this environment. The family sticks together. We have a family rule that your partner is not allowed to work in the company. Only blood relatives. A decision that seems old-fashioned from the outside, but it preserves the good understanding and harmony in the family.