With glorious views of Lake Zurich, this luxury £2.3million penthouse apartment makes an attractive residence befitting any international tycoon.
But you might be surprised to learn it is in fact owned by the boss of a company a little closer to home – the Royal Mail.
This is the lavish apartment where Rico Back, 63, will remain living despite taking the helm of Britain’s postal service based in London.
Lap of luxury: Rico Back’s penthouse apartment near Zurich is in a region of Switzerland with one of the lowest tax burdens
Location, location: The stunning views of Lake Zurich from the luxury apartments in Switzerland
The German-born business leader has been dubbed ‘the flying postman’ over his decision not to relocate to the UK and instead commute 500 miles from Switzerland.
Last Thursday, Royal Mail suffered one of the biggest pay revolts in UK corporate history when shareholders rejected his multi-million remuneration package.
Mr Back’s apartment is situated in an exclusive town near Zurich that is considered a ‘hotspot for the business elite’.
Mr Back, 63, will remain living 500 miles away from London despite being at the helm of Britain’s postal service
Other residents are said to include the boss of Fiat and the president of global logistics company Kühne + Nagel.
Financially it may also appeal to some of its fiscally-savvy inhabitants as it is located in a region which has one of the lowest tax burdens in Switzerland.
Property experts estimate Mr Back’s ‘extremely prime’ real estate is worth around three million Swiss francs, equal to around £2.3million.
This is perhaps showcased by the Bentleys and Porsches that frequent the compound daily, and his wealthy neighbours, including an award-winning photographer and the founder of a Swiss tax firm.
Mr Back is also involved in local businesses, having become a board member of a nearby gym in which he has invested £230,000.
Though born in Hamburg, Mr Back is understood to have lived in Switzerland for more than a decade with his wife and three children, the youngest of whom still goes to school in Zurich.
Metal shutters were drawn across the apartment and no one was home at the weekend.
Royal Mail announced three months ago that Mr Back – who was previously boss of the company’s European subsidiary GLS – was to succeed Dame Moya Greene as chief executive this summer.
He was offered an annual pay deal worth up to £2.7million if he hits bonus targets, on top of a controversial £6million payment for changing his GLS contract.
But at the company’s annual meeting in Sheffield last Thursday, 70 per cent of shareholders rejected Mr Back’s remuneration package.
Mr Back with Ewald Kaiser of DB Schenker in Hamburg, Germany, in 2016
Although he will remain legally domiciled in Switzerland, Mr Back will pay full tax on all his Royal Mail earnings, including any bonus payments.
It comes months after workers accepted changes to their pensions to help save the company money.
Last night, Cliff Weight, a director of individual shareholder group ShareSoc, said: ‘How will Royal Mail employees feel to see their chief executive swanning around in some glitzy penthouse pad in Switzerland rather than slogging his guts out in the UK on behalf of them and all the other stakeholders in the business?
‘It’s surely a 24/7 job, you’ve got to be where the action is, where the head office is.
‘Yes you need to go around the world to visit sites and keep in touch with international customers.
‘But this is principally a UK company – most of the postmen are in the UK and most of the problems are in the UK.’
Speaking at the AGM, Royal Mail chairman Peter Long said the firm needed ‘to pay that level of fixed remuneration to get a high calibre person like Rico to be chief executive’.
Defending Mr Back’s decision not to relocate to the UK, Mr Long said: ‘Rico is totally committed. He’s happy to be based in London as and when requested. His business residence is in London, he’s here every week.’
Alan Tate, of the Communication Workers’ Union – whose members at Royal Mail earn an average £28,274 – said: ‘There are going to be some difficult challenges for Rico in operating from Switzerland.’
Royal Mail said Mr Back would use commercial flights and pay for them himself when travelling between Zurich and London.
Swiss posties are best in the world!
Britons might hope Rico Back has learnt a few tricks from his local postal service.
Publicly-owned Swiss Post, which is the country’s second largest employer, is only marginally more expensive than its UK twin.
But it has also been ranked as the best postal service in the world for two years running.
The post is delivered once a day to Mr Back’s local area at around 10am from Monday to Saturday.
Similar to the Royal Mail though, it is not without its controversies – with its chief executive resigning last month over a £70million fraud among one of its subsidiaries.
Self-driving Swiss Post robots are presented in Bern, Switzerland, in August 2016
In the UK, a stamp for a standard small envelope weighing 100g costs 58p to send second class and 67p to send first class.
In Switzerland, the price is slightly higher at 65p and 77p.
Hotel concierge Falk Reichenbach, who works near Mr Back’s Swiss residence, said the national postal service had a ‘good reputation’ and was highly trusted.
He told how he recently sent a hotel invoice to a customer in Iraq and used both DHL and Swiss Post to make sure it arrived.
He said the envelope sent by DHL, which was collected in person arrived ten days later, whereas the one sent via a local Swiss Post depot arrived in four days – and cost £11.50 less.
Earlier this year, Switzerland came first out of 173 countries for its postal service for the second year running.
The study by the Universal Postal Union rated the UK ninth.