MARC O'POLO TAKES OVER SWISS BUSINESS FROM DISTRIBUTION PARTNER BOLLAG-GUGGENHEIM

"I would like to express my sincere thanks to Bollag-Guggenheim AG for our great and extremely successful cooperation over the past 18 years. Marc O'Polo is one of the top brands in the premium segment in Switzerland. We are thus taking over a carefully built wholesale and retail business with professional employees and stores in prime locations. We now need to continue and further develop this," says Maximilian Böck, CEO of Marc O'Polo SE. "I would like to extend a warm welcome to all Swiss employees. We are very much looking forward to meeting you and are sure that we will work together successfully as one team."

Peder Casanova, CEO Bollag-Gugghenheim AG, says: "We look back on 18 very nice and exciting years of cooperation. It makes us proud what we have achieved for the brand in Switzerland. We would like to thank Marc O'Polo for the great trust we have enjoyed in our work from the very beginning and for the very appreciative and cooperative partnership. This was particularly expressed in times of crisis or when we had to overcome great challenges."

Bollag-Guggenheim took over distribution for Marc O'Polo in Switzerland in 2005, gradually expanding the business and establishing the brand at the top of the premium segment of the Swiss fashion market. Today, the modern casual lifestyle brand has 21 monobrand stores in top locations in Switzerland – 12 that are franchises and nine that are operated directly by Bollag-Guggenheim, including in Zurich's Lintheschergasse and Glattzentrum. The newest store was opened in Bern's Marktgasse 2022. The retail business is complemented by numerous wholesale partnerships and shop-in-shop cooperations, amounting to almost 5,000 square metres of sales space. Around 70 employees work for the brand in Switzerland.

The transition from Bollag-Guggenheim to the Marc O'Polo Group is scheduled to be completed by September 1, 2024.