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Until a few days ago everything was still open. Roger Koch fights for his legacy as a Zigi entrepreneur. As a hemp pioneer. As an employer. At its peak, it employed 30 people with the Zigi “Heimat” brand and its Koch & Gsell company. Now there are 12.
Koch has been fighting creditors for a year. Today is the day of decision. The Rorschach SG district court decides on the future of the company. The problems are enormous, the debt burden is great. Depending on the presentation, the unpaid invoices total more than 10 million francs. Koch says, “We have millions of contaminated sites.”
The biggest believer is the federal government. The tax administration and the customs administration demand money. Above all, customs officials want to see millions. There are more than a dozen registered creditors, including a Coop subsidiary and the tobacco giant British American Tobacco (VIEW reported).
Past mistakes
From the beginning it was a mess at Koch & Gsell. This was described by the tobacco businessman himself at a conference last year. Cooperation with a Romanian business partner turned out to be chaotic. The cigarettes produced were packed as hard as cement or tobacco just crumbled. Sales figures: ‘lousy’.
Koch also fought the bureaucracy. The density of rules in the industry posed great challenges time and time again. Taxes weighed on the balance sheet and income statement. Experimenting with a hemp cigarette turned out to be a financial disaster. The dozen debt foreclosures entered the house.
What’s next now? The company provided information on Friday afternoon. Consequently, a written decision of the court is still pending. But 80 percent of creditors had accepted the debt restructuring deal, he said. Including customs administration. “I have a good feeling,” Koch said. During the course of the day or Monday at the latest, there must be certainty. If the debt restructuring agreement is honored, the tax administration is notified first, then customs and a former employee. Then all the other creditors. Paying off all debts will likely take less than “five years or more,” according to Koch. Until then, there will be no dividends or profit distributions. (ise)
