In Dialogue with Migros

Customers

Customers are Migros' largest group of stakeholders. In the reporting year, the company counted around 385 million customer contacts at the checkout in Cooperative Retailing.

The company communicates with its customers through various channels, such as M-Infoline, via which customers can share their suggestions or opinions about products, as well as the social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. M-Infoline was contacted over 216'000 times in 2020, and there were more than 34'000 interactions with social media users. In the reporting year, customers were able to give their opinion on five issues relating to the product range and branches on the community platform Migipedia.

Employees

In 2020, the Migros Group employed a total of 99'155 people in Switzerland and abroad. It also trained 3'700 trainees in more than 50 professions in retail, industrial, logistics and service companies.

Migros employees benefit from progressive and responsible working conditions, an occupational health management system and, with the N-CLA, one of the best collective labour agreements in Switzerland.

Cooperative members

In 2020, Migros had more than 2.2 million members in its ten regional Cooperatives. These members are equal co-owners of their regional cooperative.

The members are kept regularly informed of the latest events in their regions via the Migros media (Migros-Magazin, Migros Magazine, Azione) and the Cooperative Councils. Migros also reaches a broad audience via its website.

Business partners

Strict quality and animal welfare standards are important to Migros. It values long-term business partnerships and promotes responsible behaviour, social stability for suppliers, and domestic products from species-appropriate animal husbandry.

Migros intensified its partnership with the association of Swiss integrated production farmers (IP-Suisse) through several projects in 2020. The IP-Suisse label will fully replace the TerraSuisse label by 2022. Other joint projects include ones for label premiums and pesticide-free bread grain.

Economic policy

Migros actively engages in political dialogue on issues relating to the economy, agriculture, consumption, the environment and food. The Directorate of Economic Policy represents the interests of the Migros Group and its customers towards political authorities, parties and organisations. As part of the Swiss retail stakeholder group IG DHS, Migros is also committed to the concerns of customers and to ensuring good general conditions for Swiss retailers.

In 2020, Migros supported a counter-proposal to the responsible business initiative and a counterproject to the drinking water and pesticide initiative. Migros believes that both initiatives address important concerns of the population, but that they would be better implemented at the legislative level.

Migros does not fund political parties directly or remunerate politicians. However, it supports events and publications of political parties where possible.

Non-governmental organisations

Migros maintains regular dialogue with numerous non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The aim is to engage in open dialogue, to identify at an early stage which topics they address and to find interesting ideas. Migros also collaborates with NGOs on specific projects and issues.

In 2020, it worked with the NGO Transparentem, which campaigns to eradicate human rights abuses in supply chains. The joint efforts were aimed at improving working conditions in the textile factories in Tamil Nadu and India from which Migros buys products.

Media professionals

As Switzerland's largest retailer, Migros is a popular partner for the media. Due to the pandemic, it announced its 2019 annual results in a media release on 26 March 2020.

In the reporting year, about 9'400 enquiries from media professionals were received by the media office of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (FMC), most of which related to the topic of coronavirus.

Science

Migros maintains close dialogue with universities and other research institutions. In 2020, Migros collaborated with the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) on several scientific projects. One of these was concerned with developing new strategies for pest control in organic farming. Another one focused on the useful life of dairy cows, with the aim of reducing CO₂ emissions per litre of milk.