Mövenpick makes its Toronto comeback
Mövenpick Marché, the European-style self-serve restaurant, is returning to Toronto on January 25 after a six-year absence caused by a nasty legal dispute with franchisee Jorg Reichert. The company is taking back the space it once held in Brookfield Place (formerly BCE Place) from current tenant Richtree Market, and Mövenpick’s parent company intends to open at least 10 locations in the GTA under various names. Richtree’s closure will not affect the other locations.
But since both Richtree and Mövenpick serve food in a marketplace atmosphere—and since many Torontonians still refer to Richtree outlets as Mövenpicks—nearby office workers probably won’t notice the difference.
• This Just In: Mövenpick Marché Returning to Toronto, Bumping Richtree from Flagship Location [Taste TO]
Over 200 workers currently employed at Richtree stand to lose their jobs when the restaurant closes its doors later this month. Moevenpick has yet to make any kind of commitmentto the workers, even though combined, the have over 1000 years of service at the restaurant site.
It’s just common sense – most of these guys were there when Moevenpick was there the first time around. The workers never left and should be rehired by Moevenpick!
Moevenpick won’t agree to continue employing the 200+ Richtree employees about to lose their jobs because of the sale? That’s just plain nasty. I’ve ate there many times and these poor people work their butts off. If Moevenpick doesn’t keep the staff on, I will no longer be eating there.
Sad state of affairs if they don’t keep the 200 employees. From a business perspective it is silly as these employees know the market style restaurant and therefore would cut training and the mistakes that come with opening a new restaurant with all new hires.
It only makes sense if Movenpick wants to cheap out on the workforce and knock wages and conditions down, not exactly what this city needs in teh current climate.
Like the above poster I won’t bother going to any of the Movenpick spots they open if they can’t do the right thing and keep the staff on.
I agree. I was in there today and most people were stunned at the fact that the servers (many whom I know becuase I eat there so often) were terminated without any guarantee that they will have a job with the new co. Its all about hiring new staff so they dont have to pay the experienced people many of whom have been with the firm for years.
Another example of a foreign company coming in and only looking at the bottom line.
While I always loved Movenpick at Square 1, I was galled by 2 things, 1) the food was way overpriced – in my opinion and 2) that you were automatically charged a percentage on your bill as a sort of gratuity or something (can’t recall what they called it) even though it, like any food retailer in the food court, was self serve/seat yourself. That turned me off the whole experience.
I stopped eating at the Marche shortly after Richtree took over. The quality of the food went downhill. I walk through BCE place everyday and even though it’s busy, occasionally there is this strange smell…I always enjoyed the Movenpick on York street (which is now the Keg) because they had a great brunch with seafood!
I used to work for Movenpick (then Richtree). When they closed their locations on York St. and Front St. a couple of years later, they let everyone go with no notice, even people who had worked with the company for 20 years. No compensation, either. That was years ago and still no word from the union about that.
I use to work for Richtree… and these are two totally different circumstances. Back then, the company was going through bankruptcy/protection and they left with no choice but to close the locations that were not making money and were becoming a financial strain. This is a different situation altogether because in the past few years Richtree has been able to turn it around and was becoming a success. The Brookfield Place (BCE) locations closed because the upper management of Brookfield, without any provocation decided not to renew Richtree’s lease. Instead, the rug was pulled right from under them as they were practically evicted leaving close to 300 employees out of work.
Also, you should speak to the union that you were under while you were employed there because I know some employees from the other locations that have received some sort of dues from their union.
@E: Maybe you should get your facts straight before you make a comment. As a former employee of Richtree, your opinion is completely biased. Perhaps you should review the lease agreement that Brookfield had with Richtree and its agreement to renovate and “keep up with the times” every 10 years. Richtree refused thus breaking their contract. Along with MANY other issues, the main issue at hand is between Richtree, their union, and the new tenant. Richtree’s main focus right now is for the new tenant to recognize their barganing rights with Richtree.
Hey folks,
Please try making sensible comments. Movenpick is hiring – there job ads placed in their website. If any Richtree employee or ex-movenpikers qualify, ofcourse, they would be hired by Movenpick.
Next, you’ve to understand how the employment dynamics work… When Movenpick severed its link with its ex-master franchise, 99.9% of good, skilled & competent people had left or hired by other world-class hospitality companies over this period of 6 years from 2003. The lot of 200+ that are left before the closure of the 2 restanrants at Brookfield place are not so good & many of them are new hires with lowest ON wage rates. I don’t understant, why some of you want Movenpick to hire them automatic??? If you were an employer, would you do that??? What importance does 1000+ years experience in washing dishes, cleaning tables & cutting potatoes have in restaurant job market?
Since the departure of Movenpick, the company was run by a team of incompetent management. There was no improvement in staff or product quality. Richtree survived all these 6 years by copying Movenpick’s recepies & cooking food with sub-standard ingredients. The entire Richtree didn’t have a qualified Chef for significant duration from 2003. The food is expensive & the quality is very poor.
Now, with 60% of revenue gone with the closure of the 2 most profitable locations in Brookfield Place, Toronto; Richtree is not going to survive for 3 months. Employees were given temporary lay-off to fool them. They are not going to get severence – Richtree with remaining 5 or 6 tiny locations would soon go totally bankrupt!
Toronto is very fortunate that Movenpick is coming back. Foreign investment is mostly good for an economy.
Movenpick’s Toronto locations, when managed by the Reicherts – was phenomenal. When Richtree got rid of the Reicherts, the quality went way, way down.
I am happy to see that Movenpick is coming back. Hopefully, the quality control and amazing food experiences will make a return.
Mr. Greenwood–
As Ana says, the difference is the management–for the people working in the restaurant have been consistently working to carry out the vision provided to them by management.
In your post you write many of the workers are being paid at the low end of the wage scale, and that these employees were given a temporary lay-off to fool them and will not get severance. If this is the case–don’t you see how monstrous that is? Movenpick obviously won’t have major costs if the situation is as you say it is, and so they should the right thing by these workers and one should not write such gloating posts as people who have been with Movenpick and Richtree and Movenpick through thick and thin, suffer.
I know that until these workers are treated fairly–coming to Movenpick will leave a bad taste in my mouth.
It is sensible and more importantly human to to be angry that a company would lay of workers during these difficult economic times. According to another post–many of these workers worked for 20+ years, which means they loyally worked for Movenpick and then for Richtree–washing dishes, chopping vegetables, and making a restaurant run–which is, incidentally, an important set of skills for people working in a restaurant (I say this as a person who has been working in restaurants for years).
Dear Ana,
Mr. Reichert was a qualified chef. He was sent by Movenpick founder Ueli Prager to manage Canadian operations. He, however, started to screw things up when he & his wife Marienne began to build their own empire & began fighting the Swiss/German Movenpick owners.
Yeah, I agree that staff, product & service qualities became zero after Mr. & Mrs. Reichert was kicked out in the coup d’état by their opposing board members. However, Mr. & Mrs. Reichert were solely to blame for the sad demise of the company. He surrounded himself with a bunch of crooks, who were given top responsibilities in the company. These crooks betrayed him in the end.
Mr. & Mrs. Reichert also took bad investment decisions. The huge operations in Boston & Montreal were not making money… French culture is different. Even in France itself, Movenpick doesn’t a tiny presence.
Like you, I’m also very happy that Movenpick is coming back. I hope, this time the Canadian operations is run by professionals.
Dear Maya,
A business is not a charity. A business exist to make money. So, a business is also on the look out to hire competent people at the best possible package it could afford to pay.
Now, the same is true for employees. Good employees always enhance their skill sets & look for an emplayer who could pay them the best value in the job market.
Ofcourse, employees countinously work to realise the vision put forth by the management. In case of Richtree, inefficiencies were being rewarded. A handful of senior low-skilled workers stayed with the company for 20 something years as nobody else in the job market would hire them at that high rate that Richtree was paying them. These “senior” people would be the biggest loser. The young low-wage workers would have good probability of getting hired by Movenpick.
Keep this in mind, Business works on the principle of “SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST” – whether an employee stayed with a company thru ‘thick & thin’ has no market value what so ever.
Movenpick is not acquiring or taking over Richtree’s operations. Their lease of the Brookfield locations are in no way connected with Richtree. The now dead Richert’s “Richtree Inc.” was a master franchisee of the Swiss Movenpick. A franchisor is never obligated to re-hire laid-off employees of a franchisee, even if those employess have worked for the franchisee for 50 generations & for 1000 years!!!
Come to your senses. Life is not easy.
Congratulations to Mr.and Mrs. Reichert for their long fight to finally bring back Marche to the Torontonians.I wish them all the success in coming future and hope to see an improvised Marche a Flagship venture again after 1992.
To Gordon Greenwood (professoinal spin doctor for Movenpick I assume?) As an MBA and a person who worked for the most successful companies in Canada and Europe, I disagree with your statement “whether an employee stayed with a company thru ‘thick & thin’ has no market value what so ever.” Employees are company’s asset and it is the employees and their loyalty which makes a company successful. If workers apply the same principle to the company as you mentioned, they will leave at times when the company needs the most. eg when the economy is good and there is fierce competition and high pay. Faced with employee who see their jobs as nothing as a pay cheque (applying your principle that EVERYTHING is about money), a company will not survivie. Judging by your philosophy you represent the worst type of employer and manager with short sight and no long term vision. Perhaps your children will abandon one day because you will represent a burden to their strive to the fittest? I work to live, I don’t live to work, maybe you should live a little too.
Hey James,
Probably, the university that gave you your “MBA” degree is running from a run-down basement near Landsdown subway station. What most successful companies did you work for?? With these ideas they hired you in Europe??? You want people to believe your BS???
Here we are talking about a company that is doomed by internal politics & inefficient management and the workers left were all in very unskilled professions such as busboy, dish washer, cashier, hostess, kitchen help, sales help (marketeer, etc. Read my earlier posts – 99.9% of skilled ex-Richtree/Movenpickers left the company when the financial downturn of the Canadian master-franchisee started. Get some knowledge on how a franchise works!
Ofcourse, employees are assets as long as they keep their skill levels upgraded. It’s the visionary leaders that made companies great. Go & read your cases in your MBA program once again! What grades did you get in subjects like Entreprenearship, Strategic Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Advanced Accounting – D Minus???
Don’t preach me about what my childred would do… I wonder wether your children have abandoned you already. You live to “work” – where? In your dad’s hotdog-stall by Union Station???
Do you watch business news in TV? How many “loyal” workers were laid-off by the BIG three automakers in recent months? Did you go to the auto-plants to preach your message to the laid-off workers?
Gordon Greenwood
I just went to Marche for the first time since Movenpick took back ownership. I have been a patron of the restaurant at the BCE Place location since the 1990’s. Sad to say, I will never return after the horrible experience I had this past Sunday evening. First off, the hostess was rude, pretentious and when I tried to ask a question, she just walked off after seating myself and my guest (from out of town, I was hyping up this place to him for a long time) in what she described as “claustrophobic” herself. She sat us in the “Sweedish Hut” with a family of about 4 children who were making flatulent noises, running around and on the other side of the window form our table, another family with children that were banging at the window at us. Our table was also in a tiny corner even though there were about 5 other empty larger tables the hostess could have sat us at.
What really upset me was everything that made Movenpick Marche unique, was taken away and replaced with what looked like Ikea cafeteria decor. All the fun decor and beautiful art was gone.
The food stations were all rearranged which had absolutely no flow like it used to.
I started off with what I always do, the Rosti.
The woman behind the Rosti counter seemed like she hated her job and when I asked for one, gave me a Rosti that was already made (not fresh like advertised!) and it was drowned in a pool of grease. To top it off, it was cold and undercooked. This truly ruined my appetite and my guest had described his chicken dinner as worse than going to Swiss Chalet. The prices have gone up, the quality and service WAAAAAYY down.
When I went to the cashier to pay, I made my complaint about the Rosti and had to wait for the manager to come speak to me. His name was Gabriel and he gave me excuse after excuse that sounded like it came from some written speech they’re told to say with NO APOLOGY whatsoever.
He removed only my Rosti and didn’t offer to remove my guest’s meal or give anything in order to keep our business.
He even took a phone call at the cashier while processing our cheque, and therefore didn’t thank us, didn’t apologize or even wish us a good night.
I was completely embarrassed to have hyped up this restaurant to my guest all this time, when instead it was a waste of money, a waste of a night out, and certainly a waste of time and frustration.
All the staff seem unhappy (except the server at the drinks counter was polite) and nothing like the previous staff when it was the original Movenpick Marche or even when Richtree owned the restaurant. The lack of quality in the food for the over pricing is disgusting and can make anyone lose their appetite. The cheap simple cafeteria decor is just awful.
I will NEVER go back and the management should be ashamed of themselves to let go a patron of over 20 years.
For shame indeed.
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