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The 140-year history is coming to an end. A prominent example: the Franz Carl Weber main store in Zurich.
It is known throughout Switzerland and is particularly popular with children: the Franz Carl Weber (FCW) store chain with the white rocking horse on a red background in the logo. The toy retailer is gradually disappearing from Swiss cities.
After more than 140 years in Zurich city center, the main store on Bahnhofplatz becomes a branch of the Müller drugstore. The “CH Media” newspapers were the first to report this. Orange posters hang on the shop window in Zurich, with the Müller logo in the center. Underneath it says: “Franz Carl Weber becomes Müller.”
A look into the history of the Swiss toy retailer
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Legend: After more than 120 years, Franz Carl Weber leaves downtown Zurich. The brand made and continues to make the hearts of many a Swiss child beat faster. A look into the history of the toy retailer. KEYSTONE/Eddy Risch
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Legend: The German businessman Franz Philipp Karl Friedrich Weber is behind the brand: in 1881 he opened the toy store named after him on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse. Before that, Weber was employed at a drugstore. Seen in this way, the move of the Müller drugstore chain into several branches also closes a circle. KEYSTONE/PHOTOPRESS ARCHIVE/Str
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Legend: Success didn’t take long to arrive: nine years after it was founded, Weber acquired a larger shop at Bahnhofstrasse 62. (Photo from 1963.) KEYSTONE/PHOTOPRESS ARCHIVE/Str
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Legend: Over time, the company expanded: a first branch was opened in Geneva in 1917, and a second in Bern in 1925. (Image: View of the branch on Rues-Basses in Geneva in 1973.) KEYSTONE/PHOTOPRESS ARCHIVE/Hans Gabriel
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Legend: The company remained family-owned until it was sold to the retailer Denner in 1984. By the way: One of the first products that was available to buy in the “FCW” was the rocking horse. KEYSTONE/Urs Flueeler
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Legend: At the end of the 1990s, the company had almost 50 branches across Switzerland. Today there are just under 20. When Müller moves into stores in Zurich, Basel, Bern and Lucerne, there will be even fewer. (Image: View of the branch on Freie Strasse in Basel, 2002.) KEYSTONE/Dominik Pluess
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Legend: At the end of 2016, Franz Carl Weber had to leave the traditional store on Bahnhofstrasse due to the high rent and moved to Bahnhofsplatz near Zurich HB. KEYSTONE/Walter Bieri
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Legend: The end of the Bahnhofstrasse made many headlines, as children’s dreams of generations were fulfilled in the store. KEYSTONE/Eddy Risch
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Legend: Franz Carl Weber also managed one or two spectacular advertising campaigns: In 1990, the cartoon character Pingu traveled for the company on the Reuss in Lucerne. KEYSTONE/Str
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Legend: A sad incident occurred in 1964 when the company’s fireworks warehouse in Zurich Altstetten exploded. Franz Carl Weber then decided not to sell fireworks any more. The remaining stock was fired in a show on the Allmend in Wollishofen. 20,000 people watched the spectacle. KEYSTONE/PHOTOPRESS ARCHIVE/Baumann
The German drugstore chain Müller took over Franz Carl Weber last summer. At that time, the then co-owner Marcel Dobler, who is also a national councilor for the St. Gallen FDP, promised that not much would change with the takeover. Franz Carl Weber will keep his branches. Now things will probably be different.
No precise information about closures
The name Franz Carl Weber is not only disappearing from the main store in Zurich. According to media reports, the same posters as in Zurich are hanging in the shop windows in Zurich-Altstetten, Bern, Basel and Lucerne. In Thun, Franz Carl Weber is also to give way to the drugstore chain, and in Biel the location is to be closed completely, various media reports.
At the request of SRF, the Müller company, headquartered in Ulm, confirmed that there were changes. “Many of our departments are working on different adjustments,” it says. However, the internal processes have not yet been completed, so the company cannot yet provide more detailed information about which branches will be affected by closures or whether all toy stores will become Müller drugstores.