Swiss Perfection in the Kitchen
Interview with Winfried Küppers, Managing Director of V-ZUG Deutschland GmbH
For over 100 years, Swiss kitchen and household appliance manufacturer V-ZUG has represented an uncompromising premium standard that goes far beyond high product quality. Managing Director Winfried Küppers revealed in the interview what special requirements his customers have for the company, how the associated innovations are achieved, and why carbon neutrality has long been old news for V-ZUG.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Küppers, for over 100 years V-ZUG has aimed to impress with 'Swiss Perfection for the Home'. What significance does your Swiss homeland have for your daily business?
Winfried Küppers: The name of our company is derived from 'Verzinkerei in der Stadt Zug' and stands for the place where we still fully produce as a Swiss-Made manufacturer today – just with that, we emphatically underline our uncompromising quality standards. Switzerland stands for an attractive, upscale, yet unpretentious lifestyle with high-end products of unparalleled elegance, durability, and impressive functionality – this is well known from the local watchmaking factories as well as from our trade, the kitchen industry.
Wirtschaftsforum: How is the premium quality of your products evident?
Winfried Küppers: The starting point of our development processes is almost always the question of the specific requirements of our customers: What do they want, and which problems can we solve with our solutions? For example, there was a long-standing challenge that humidity could only be added to the oven through a poorly adjustable water bath. Thus, we invented our steamer, which also automatically takes into account the different cooking times of the various ingredients: This way, you can put potatoes, asparagus, and broccoli in our steam cooker at the same time – thanks to our first-class sensors, they will be ready simultaneously. Moreover, many of our customers place great importance on precise temperature cooking, as especially high-quality dishes like salmon are very sensitive to even minor temperature fluctuations of 1 or 2 °C. Our kitchen appliances easily accommodate these narrow tolerance ranges. Those who have the same high standards for their clothing can meanwhile rely on our washing machines, which also operate with precise temperature control. However, for those who want to achieve a first-class result in the kitchen in the simplest possible way, V-ZUG is the perfect place: A perfect beef tenderloin only needs to be placed in our device, and you don't even need to enter the weight or desired temperature—it will be guaranteed to be medium rare as desired.
Wirtschaftsforum: At V-ZUG, it's not just about extraordinary functionality, but also about equally appealing design.
Winfried Küppers: Not for nothing have we been awarded the Red Dot Award for our products and our online presence. To excite our customers about our approach, we now operate three showrooms in Germany at particularly attractive locations in Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin, where our guests can fully immerse themselves in our world. Because our appliances are not just meant to take on annoying household tasks, but also to offer an attractive user experience and contribute to an aesthetically pleasing home. To consistently fulfill this premium idea, we therefore need not only first-class engineers but also top designers who stand for a timeless yet modern style.
Wirtschaftsforum: However, outstanding product quality is not enough – a premium brand must also shine through excellent service.
Winfried Küppers: Exactly – that's why every customer also becomes part of our V-ZUG community and receives individually tailored support for all their important queries. Should an unexpected problem occur with one of our devices, we naturally send out a service technician immediately. However, this is just one element of our comprehensive community offer, where, if desired, we also provide a chef at cost price who can prepare a perfect Christmas goose, a vegetarian Easter menu, or any other dish on site. All these elements are meant to show that we know the needs of our customers in precise detail and want to meet them well beyond just product excellence.
Wirtschaftsforum: Many customers who place special value on premium quality are now also concerned with a good sustainability record of the companies whose products they purchase.
Winfried Küppers: Carbon neutrality is no longer an issue for V-ZUG today – we actually achieved this goal back in 2020. Rather, we are now focusing on how we can give back to the environment more than we take in terms of resources. In this context, V-ZUG was able to reduce its production area usage by 60% while simultaneously increasing product output. More initiatives will follow.