Switzerland’s second largest phone company by revenue, Sunrise Communications Holdings SA, released its results on 26 March 2015 showing a smaller loss for 2014 than for 2013. Sunrise listed on the Swiss stock market (ticker symbol: SRCG) on 6 February 2015, in the largest Swiss IPO since 2006. This allowed it to repay some of […]
Swiss coffee capsule war hots up
Jean-Paul Gaillard the boss of the Swiss coffee capsule maker Ethical Coffee Company (ECC) said recently that he expects sales of his coffee capsules to exceed those of Nespresso, owned by Nestlé Group, within three years, according to the newspaper Tribune de Genève. Unlike Nespresso capsules the Nespresso-compatible ECC ones are biodegradable. According to ECC’s […]
CERN blows a fuse
After planning to restart the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva on 23 March 2015 it has now been delayed for several weeks. A short circuit in one of the powerful magnets that power the particle beams is responsible. Because the magnets are chilled to close to absolute zero it will need to be warmed […]
Vaud residents could be costing Geneva millions
A recent study commissioned by Geneva City’s management looks at the costs of running the City. The total cost was CHF 290 million in 2013. After contributions from neighbouring communes including those in France, Geneva City was left with a net bill of between CHF 180 and 200 million. It is estimated that around 60% […]
Why Geneva’s unemployment is higher than Zurich’s
Most think Switzerland has low unemployment, however, aggregate figures mask large regional differences. Underneath the overall national rate of 3.5% (February 2015), lie cantonal rates that range from 1.1% in Obwalden to 5.8% in Neuchatel. Zurich, currently at 3.6% typically hovers around the national average, while Geneva, currently at 5.6% is consistently 2% higher than […]
Continued rise in cross-border workers entering Switzerland
At the end of 2014 there were 287,100 foreign residents crossing the borders of Switzerland to work. This army of day-tripping workers, called frontaliers in French, would fill around 5,000 buses and exceeds the combined populations of the Cantons of Neuchatel and Jura. The cantons with the highest number of cross-border workers were those with […]
Hans Erni Switzerland’s Picasso dies
Hans Erni, considered by some to be Switzerland’s Picasso, passed away on Saturday at the age of 106. Born in Lucerne in 1909, the sculptor and painter never stopped working. He completed the fresco at the entrance of the Palais des Nations, which contains the office of the United Nations in Geneva in 2009. The […]
Uncle Sam seeks expat ideas on tax reform
A record number of US citizens renounced their citizenship last year and one of the most common reasons for this was the costs and time required to comply with America’s complicated tax rules. It seems that some in the US senate have heard the cries of their expatriates. A bipartisan group including Democrats and Republicans […]
Gender equality, quality of life and Swiss citizenship
Dispatches from Happy Valley – an expat’s view of life in Switzerland Another dispatch from Happy Valley…this writer’s affectionate name for the Swiss region bordering on Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). Back in Happy Valley after a long return flight from Canada via Paris to Geneva. Coincidentally on International Women’s Day, with Air France handing out […]
Path of total solar eclipse
Friday 20 March 2015, will bring a total solar eclipse to Europe. Electrical power grids across Europe will be hit by a drop in solar-produced electricity. In the European Union the drop could be as high as 34 GW. Temperatures will also drop by around 3 degrees Celsius. It will occur in the morning and […]
