Ringier sells Betty Bossi to Coop
Effective December 21, 2012, Coop will acquire Ringier’s 50 percent stake in Betty Bossi, thereby gaining 100 percent ownership. With this full acquisition, Coop aims to further strengthen Betty Bossi in business areas such as newspapers, cookbooks, kitchen and household items, and Betty Bossi Digital.
In addition, the Fresh Convenience division is to be further expanded. Ringier wrote this in a statement on Friday. The Betty Bossi concept, including the Betty Bossi subscriber membership, will be consistently developed further.
In 2001, Coop acquired 50 percent of the share capital of Betty Bossi Verlag from Ringier and the joint venture between Coop and Ringier was launched. As early as 2002, Coop launched the new convenience brand "Idee Betty Bossi" together with Betty Bossi. Coop expanded the range from an initial 200 products to around 500 items within a year. In 2012, Coop generated sales of around CHF 500 million with over 600 Betty Bossi products.
Ringier focuses even more strongly on digital business
With the sale of Betty Bossi, Ringier is continuing its strategic realignment towards a digital business model, the statement continues. Betty Bossi is very well positioned in the digital business, but its main area of business is in its traditional area. The separation from Betty Bossi is therefore a logical step for Ringier and makes sense in view of the close cooperation between Coop and Betty Bossi.
