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BUSINESS ABROAD: The Swiss Family Migros

Gottlieb Duttweiler is a single-minded Swiss businessman who has spent the past 29 years working successfully toward one goal: bringing prices down. By steadily undercutting competitors, he has built an $85 million-a-year empire that started out with groceries and now includes taxi fleets, clothing stores, sewing machines and movies. In a nation of enterprising moneymakers, Duttweiler is the most enterprising of all. He is also unique in another way: years ago he gave away most of his wealth to his customers.

Duttweiler's successful price-cutting has frequently brought trouble from his cartel-minded competitors. But "Dutti," as he is fondly known to his...

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