https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/ovs--pa...llion/42455576
Anybody knows more about the story/has an opinion?
For years, I was quite happy with this Swiss clothing brand because of their good quality and also acceptable price range. Now suddenly I saw their shops closing one by one, as the business is coming to and end.
I can only speak from experience, but maybe they're the equivalent of (UK) C&A, who dropped prices and quality until they died under the weight of the Cheap & Awful moniker.
When I first came here Vogele were decent quality and decent price, but last time I tried them (a few years ago) it was like being in New Look and the bad bits of M&S - and I'm not a teenager spending pocket money on disposable clothes, or wanting a style-less cardigan and socks.
Used to be cheap and cheerful, tried to go more upmarket and now failing. Simple. I used to get a lot of my clothes in Voegele, but haven’t shopped there in years. That said I did get a couple of tops in the sales at the shop in Bern at the weekend, but sale prices are what used to be their normal prices.
I think you said exactly the opposite of me
Not sure if I'm confused about the store, or they're confused about their strategy and target. Possibly the latter would explain their problems...
They were bought by an Italian brand called OVS and the stores are slowly being turned into OVS stores. They are all closed in Neuchatel now and one is OVS already.
I used to like Vogele and hubby got all of his work shirts there.
They tried, back at the beginning of the millennium (after going public) to move upmarket, and to expand into Germany, Austria and Holland.
They never managed to shake the "Discount/Cheap" reputation, and the change in management wasn't exactly smooth - there was an "old boy" network leftover after going public, and many of them didn't really like the new CEO.
We have two OVS so far in and around Lausanne, in old Vögele shops. They've got some nice clothes, but the quality is quite bad unfortunately
Voegele was not my style so I won't miss it. But OVS doesn't seem to have shoes, so will Voegele Schuhe carry on? Looking through all the general, commonplace shoes they have, I found some really groovy ones there this year.
Later .... Checked out OVS website, the offer is incredibly small and the style ..... yeah, well .... . Guess I will enter their stores as never as I did Voegele.
I agree with Medea. It was a good shop with good quality clothes. They redecorated my local shop like a cave with dark grey & bad lighting (rather like Fnac actually). It's hard enough seeing what's in a shop without them turning the lights down so you are staggering round trying to see where you are.
Hi
It is owned by Migros which decided to bring the Italian brand OVS to Switzerland. They found when they replaced Vögele Shops with OVS sales went up dramatically and so now all the Vögele Shops are being replaced OVS. I seem to remember Herren Globus US closing and Manor just decided to fire 200 people and their hq. Not great times for retail
Have fun
Martin
Voegele Shoes was kept as a private company when the clothing side went public. They may have gone public, or sold to new owners, but they were always a separate legal entity.
They were bought by OVS
https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wirtsch...story/20728497
(link in German)
No, it’s not. They only hold about 10% of the stock.
Isn't that just the clothing side of things not the shoes? The shoe shops remain unchanged here.