"Swiss cheese is not just Swiss cheese!"
Interview with Reto Güntensperger, Managing Director of Güntensperger Käse AG
For over 130 years, Güntensperger Käse AG from Bütschwil in the Canton of St. Gallen has been producing high-quality cheese that is subsequently exported all over the world. The company has not lost its innovative power and recently introduced two more new products. Managing Director Reto Güntensperger revealed in an interview the basis for the global appreciation for Swiss cheese and the challenges the industry is currently facing.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Güntensperger, Swiss cheese is known worldwide for its distinctive taste and unparalleled quality. What particularly distinguishes you as a cheese manufacturer?
Reto Güntensperger: Güntensperger obtains its milk directly from farmers, and we have a direct business relationship with each of our suppliers. As a relatively small company, everything from the sustainable sourcing of our raw materials to the sales remains in our hands, allowing us to reliably maintain our quality promise. This approach even extends to our lactic acid bacteria, which we cultivate ourselves. To ensure the highest freshness, we also produce on Sundays.
As a result, the quality of our products is hardly comparable to the products of other manufacturers who do not take on these efforts with similar consistency.
Wirtschaftsforum: How does Güntensperger Käse AG differ from its competitors in terms of corporate management?
Reto Güntensperger: As a family-run traditional company with a 130-year company history, we can certainly react more flexibly and therefore more quickly to new developments than management-led companies with much higher coordination costs. At least, we attribute our great joy in innovation to this factor. At the same time, we can draw on our accumulated know-how and thus produce cheese with a truly distinctive taste. Because in the end, not only does the Güntensperger Käse AG stand or fall, but also the entire Swiss cheese industry with our exceptional product quality.
Wirtschaftsforum: What product innovations are you currently working on?
Reto Güntensperger: For a year now, we have been producing grilled cheese in sausage form, which has not yet been available on the market. The feedback so far has been very positive, so we feel sustainably confirmed in this approach. At this year's Anuga, we also introduced our Chipolata, a spicy cheese in the shape of a Vienna sausage – this development is also unique in the entire cheese market, and we are looking forward to the consumers' reactions.
Wirtschaftsforum: You export over 70% of your products abroad. What changes is your international business currently undergoing?
Reto Güntensperger: The continuous appreciation of the Swiss Franc against the Euro and the US Dollar has become a central challenge for us in recent years, which we can only partially address through our own entrepreneurial actions. Additionally, there is significant price inflation in many of our core markets, particularly in Germany, where consumers have lost substantial purchasing power over the last two years and now have less money available for high-quality and thus higher-priced products. For us, the consequence is a broader international positioning to further reduce lump-sum risks in individual markets and currencies. Having made major investments in our production and corresponding storage facilities for our products over the past few years, as well as launching numerous product innovations, we are now also in a phase of consolidation as entrepreneurs.
Wirtschaftsforum: In the future, do you also have to increasingly adapt to different taste preferences in individual markets?
Reto Güntensperger: We already do this today – after all, Swiss cheese is not just Swiss cheese, but is divided into about 500 varieties with different flavor profiles and consistencies. However, what all variants have in common is their uncompromising demand for quality – and this is equally appreciated worldwide from England to Japan.
Wirtschaftsforum: What challenges does the Swiss cheese industry face as a whole?
Reto Güntensperger: Probably the same as any other sector in Europe: there are fewer and fewer labor forces coming in, and they do not want to work as much with a stronger emphasis on positive work-life balance. Yet, less work has never created more prosperity. We must be aware of this consequence as an economic location, so that we are not left behind by other world regions in the coming decades.