As Bigler’s successor: chocolate lobbyist Urs Furrer should become the top trader

People who know him professionally say he is a “constructive person,” a “quiet creator,” and a “very structured person.” This clearly sets him apart from Bigler, who wasn’t afraid to throw in the gauntlet if it would raise the profile of the industry. Furrer is something like the antithesis of the former head of the association.

However, with his confrontational nature, Bigler had success on his side. He was aware of the considerable weight he had as a top representative in a quartet of social partners at national level – these are Travailsuisse, the Trade Union Confederation (SGB), the Employers’ Association (SAV) and its trade association (SGV). Bigler threw this weight on the scales.

Can he increase the association’s brand awareness?

He emphasized the differences: there are the advocates of the out-of-the-box companies, here are the representatives of small and medium-sized companies. There they are looking for a quiet pact and a ‘regulated framework’, but here they want less regulation, less state, less EU and less power for the unions. Bigler’s message was clear: without the trade association, deals cannot be made at the national level.

Bigler turned the trade association into a politically combative force that could compete with the second economic umbrella organization, Economiesuisse, with much less money and personnel. Furrer will one day be measured by this success. And the question is whether he can deliver on that. “Maybe the management of the trade association is a shoe size too big for him,” says someone who worked under him.

The elections are in a week

Furrer is not yet in office. On Monday he was nominated as an external candidate by the fifteen-member board. In a week, the Chamber of Commerce, the trade association’s hundred-member parliament, will meet and elect him as director.

There are also those on this committee who would like to rely on the continuity of Bigler’s combative style and would prefer to see current deputy director Henrique Schneider elected. But he was voted out three months ago.

“The reshuffling of the association’s leadership preceded a clear decision by the Chamber of Commerce. The affair is over,” says a well-known member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Schwyzer state councilor and beer brewer Alois Gmür. He expects “no problems with the election of Urs Furrer”, whom he considers an interesting candidate.

An SME representative through and through

Furrer still has to get used to the smell of the trader’s stable. His CV doesn’t look like this: after his studies he went to court and then worked as a corporate lawyer and advised companies at KPMG, among others. He stayed there for five years. He then moved to Economiesuisse, became a lobbyist and stayed there for ten years, focusing first on antitrust law and later on tax and finance. Here he showed his talent for political networking.

He took advantage of this and moved to the trust sector in 2013, here as chief lobbyist for the Expertsuisse association. From 2014 he became association director of the chocolate and biscuit industry. The past ten years, in a very small-scale industry “from Geneva to Romanshorn”, have shaped him, says someone close to him. Of the 49 companies he represents today, half are very small (fewer than fifty employees). Ten companies are large, including Lindt & Sprüngli, Mondelez and Cailler (Nestlé Suisse).

As an employer representative, he conducted tough negotiations with the unions involved in the sector, including Unia. “He knows how small and medium-sized businesses think,” the source said. He will likely use this trump card, his network in Federal Bern and the strategic thinking he would have with the trade association if he is elected next week and takes office next spring.