Kuhn Rikon
| Kuhn Rikon AG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1926 |
| Seat | Zell , Switzerland |
| management | Tobias Gerfin ( CEO ) Dorothee Auwärter ( Chairman of the Board of Directors ) |
| Number of employees | 160 (2009) |
| Branch | Consumer goods |
| Website | www.kuhnrikon.com |
Kuhn Rikon is a production company for cookware in Rikon in the Zurich Tösstal . It is particularly known for pressure cookers under the brand name Duromatic , which in Switzerland is often used as a synonym for a pressure cooker. The company is organized as a stock corporation and is family-owned. The name Kuhn Rikon is also associated with the Tibet Institute Rikon , which serves as a spiritual and cultural center for the Tibetans in exile in Switzerland.
history
In 1926 Heinrich Kuhn-Boller acquired the competing copper and steel pan manufacture Gebr. Kindlimann (popularly known as "Pfanni") and founded the Heinrich Kuhn metal goods factory . Under the Duro brand, he developed the first cookware that was suitable for the emerging electric stoves by using aluminum instead of copper or brass .
When Heinrich Kuhn died in 1932 as a result of a brain tumor operation , Henri Kuhn (1914–1969) , who was about to graduate , took over management and transformed the company into a stock corporation. From 1947, his younger brother Jacques Kuhn (born February 15, 1919 - † December 30, 2016), a mechanical engineer trained at ETH Zurich , was the company's technical director. He introduced the assembly line production , which he had got to know on his study trip to the USA. In 1949 the Duromatic pressure cooker was launched - in competition with Flexsil , which was widespread at the time - which laid the basis for export activities and developed into the market leader.
When Switzerland took in 1,000 refugees from Tibet in 1964 , Henri and Jacques Kuhn provided workplaces and company apartments. In 1967, on the advice of the Dalai Lama , whom Henri Kuhn met in India, they established the Tibet Institute Rikon , which they provided with 100,000 francs and the necessary building land. The Rikon Tibet Institute was inaugurated as early as 1968 and has developed into an important religious center for Tibetans in Switzerland and neighboring countries. Even today, many employees of the Kuhn Rikon are of Tibetan descent.
In 1969 Henri Kuhn died unexpectedly, but in 1976 the third generation joined the family company with his son Hans-Heinrich Kuhn. The introduction of the first double-walled cookware ( Durotherm ), which was patented worldwide and which drove international expansion , also fell into this phase . In 1984 Jacques Kuhn withdrew from the company.
In 2001 the Heinrich Kuhn metal goods factory was renamed Kuhn Rikon AG.
In 2006 a museum dedicated to the history of cooking was opened.
In 2010 a range of caquelons for cheese and meat fondue, rechauds and forks came onto the market, which Kuhn Rikon had developed together with the ceramic expert Hanspeter Landert ( cooking at the table ).
In 2011, a fully automatic pressure steam cooker was launched as a built-in device ( Duromatic Relax Powersteamer ).
In 2012, Philipp Kuhn, Dorothee Auwärter, Christian Kuhn and Willi Auwärter, the fourth generation of the owner families Kuhn and Auwärter-Kuhn, took a seat on the board of directors. In April 2014 Dorothee Auwärter also took over its presidency.
criticism
In 2007, Coop offered kitchen appliances under the Kuhn Rikon label as part of a trophy promotion , which, however, were not manufactured by Kuhn Rikon, but produced under license in China.
Based on a report on the program Kassensturz , Kuhn Rikon confirmed that by 2009 there were 140 known cases of exploded double-walled pans of the Durotherm brand , in 14 cases with injuries. Kuhn Rikon emphasized that this was not due to production errors, but to improper use, e.g. B. Damage from dropping. If you are unsure after a fall, Kuhn Rikon recommends a test and carries it out for customers free of charge. The Kuhn-Rikon "Hotpan" system achieves exactly the same functionality as the Durotherm pan without double-walled cookware - the insulating double-walled structure is created by the user by inserting the single-walled pan into the insulating planter.
literature
- Jacques Kuhn . In: Susanna Schwager : The full life. Talking about men over eighty , pp. 263–283. Wörterseh, Gockhausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-03763-001-3
- Jacques Kuhn: Why a Tibetan monastery in Rikon? Writings of the Tibet Institute Rikon No. 10, Rikon 1996
- Marianne Kaltenbach : steam cooking . Heinrich Kuhn, Rikon 1973
Web links
- Website of the Kuhn Rikon AG
- Markus Bürgi: Kuhn (ZH, Zell / Rikon). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Jacques Kuhn - in the Aeschbacher program on Swiss television on January 8, 2009
- René Donzé: The man who tamed the steam. ( Memento of November 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) www.tagesanzeiger.ch, November 10, 2009.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Obituary, Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 6, 2017, p. 16.
- ↑ Thomas Widmer: The high pressure man. In: Tages-Anzeiger from January 6, 2017.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Balance 20/2007
- ↑ Kuhn-Rikon-Pan: Explosion injures child - Kassensturz from October 13, 2009 ( Memento of the original from December 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 47 ° 26 '37 " N , 8 ° 47' 47.7" E ; CH1903: 702424 / two hundred and fifty-five thousand six hundred forty-three