Pico takes over online farm shop Farmy can be bought - small investors lose their money

The online farm store Farmy is being taken over by wholesaler Pico, which means financial losses for many investors. Dominique Locher explains the background.

Farmy - these are the small electric vans that deliver farm produce directly to households. The company has experienced a rapid upswing during the pandemic. According to current Managing Director Dominique Locher, turnover grew from CHF 9.5 million to CHF 24 million, as he explains to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.

But then people returned to the stores, Farmy's sales slumped and the online farm store had to downsize. For example, by giving up the business in French-speaking Switzerland. But all the restructuring was not enough to make a profit.

In the end, Managing Director Dominique Locher had no choice but to sell the business in order to save the company. The organic wholesaler Pico bought the company for 100,000 francs. Pico mainly supplies stores and restaurants with organic food.

Takeover as a last resort

The 100,000 Swiss franc sales service has particularly caught the attention of those who bought shares in Farmy two years ago as part of a crowdfunding campaign. At the time, more than 18,000 small investors transferred 4.2 million francs. As the purchase price suggests, none of this is left. Those who have not already sold their shares will lose their money.

In the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, Locher explains that the takeover by Pico is the only option to save the company and the jobs. He still believes that selling food online could be profitable. There are already examples of this, for example in Turkey. Coop's online business is also doing well, says Locher, who once founded "Le Shop", sold it to Migros and then worked for Switzerland's largest retailer for several years.

Pico boss worked for farmy until recently

Locher is convinced that Pico and farmy - which is to keep its company name - complement each other well. They have large overlaps in their product ranges and can therefore buy in larger quantities. They could also use some of the same infrastructure. Not least because Pico delivers to stores outside of opening hours, while the farmy couriers are mainly on the road to private customers during the day.

It is interesting to note that the managing director of Pico, Thomas Zimmermann, was a member of farmy's management until recently, according to the Handelszeitung. Together, the former colleagues must manage to run the new, merged company profitably.

The editor wrote this article with the help of AI.