Maestrani

Maestrani Swiss Chocolate Ltd
legal form	Corporation
founding	1852
Seat	Flawil , Switzerland
management	Markus Vettiger
Number of employees	150
Branch	food industry
Website	www.maestrani.ch

The Maestrani Swiss chocolate AG , based in Flawil manufactures and distributes Swiss chocolate and confectionery products. The company also sells the Munz and Minor brands .

history

Ludovico «Aquilino» Maestrani came from Aquila in the Blenio Valley . He had learned the art of chocolate making from his father Giuseppe in Lugano . After years of traveling in Italy and Germany (1846–1852), he opened his first shop in 1852 on Krongasse in Lucerne . Giuseppe, for his part, learned his trade, like many others at that time, in Lombardy (→ Swiss chocolate ). In 1859 Aquilino Maestrani relocated his business to St. Gallen , to Multergasse. In order to advertise his products, he built the so-called “marble house”, a magnificent building in the middle of the old town.

In 1875, demand exceeded the existing production capacity, so a new factory building was built in the east of the city. Aquilino Maestrani died in 1880. He was buried first in St. Gallen and later in Aquila. His three sons Ludovico, Roberto and Savino continued to run the company together. From 1887 to 1897 it had a branch in Bregenz . In 1884 the company acquired the building of a former spinning mill in St. Georgen (St. Gallen) , where production was also relocated a year later. St. Georgen remained the company's headquarters until the 21st century. In 1905 extensive external funds were raised and in the years 1912–1913 the Maestrani family lost control of the company. The troubled “Maestrani Schweizer Schokoladen AG” was successfully restructured from 1923 by the trustee Jakob Guyer on behalf of the creditor bank.

The Maestrani company was well known early on, and the Italian King Umberto I appointed it to be his purveyor to the court. In 1912 the company was given its current name “Maestrani Schweizer Schokoladen AG”. After an initial boom, the years of the world wars brought difficult times for the company, especially the scarcity of raw materials.

In 1998 Maestrani acquired the competitor “Munz” in Flawil . A year later the construction of a new production hall began, with the intention of relocating the entire production from St. Gallen to Flawil. This took place in 2003 and 2004.

One year after the (planned) final move of the traditional company from Gallusstadt, a new shop - called "Chocolaterie" - was opened in the immediate vicinity of the St. Gallen Collegiate Church . There is chocolate sold, and visitors can get an insight into the production of chocolate, including machines are installed in chocolate production in the salesroom.

Today, the company says it employs around 150 people. The production volume is given as around 3500 tons per year.

Trivia

• The Maestrani lettering is often the first thing tourists see when they arrive in St. Gallen by train; There is a large neon sign emblazoned above the eastern end of the St. Gallen train station .
• An advertisement of the company hung above the entrance of Hall 7 of the OLMA until shortly before the fire, which had recently caused some discussions. The advertisement featured several blacks in a manner that approximated the glorification of slavery and exploitation.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Müller: Aquilino Maestrani. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . October 22, 2009 , accessed November 16, 2018 .
2. ↑ Marco Marcacci: Maestrani. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . October 22, 2009 , accessed November 16, 2018 .
3. ↑ Maestrani (website of the company): Our portrait. Retrieved November 16, 2018 .