Wyss seeds and plants
| Wyss seeds and plants AG | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1858 |
| Seat | Zuchwil , Switzerland |
| management | Ulrich Wyss ( CEO ) Martin Imbach ( Chairman of the Board of Directors ) |
| Number of employees | over 300 |
| sales | 60 million CHF |
| Website | www.wyssgarten.ch |
The Wyss seeds and plants AG is a Swiss production and wholesale and retail company for seeds, plants, garden supplies and feed. A horticultural specialist publisher also belongs to the company. Wyss' headquarters are in Zuchwil in the canton of Solothurn .
History and present
The company was founded in 1858 by the then 22-year-old François Wyss at Schloss Blumenstein in Solothurn as a nursery. Seeds have been sold since 1881. In 1910 one of his sons, Emil Wyss (1883–1968), set up a tree nursery in Zuchwil. The location was continuously expanded. In 1942 the company was converted into a stock corporation. In 1962 one of the first garden centers in Switzerland was built in Zuchwil, and in 1971 the company headquarters was finally relocated there.
The current management consists of Ulrich Wyss (chairman, great-grandson of the founder), Willy Locher and Hans Walter Müller. In total, the Wyss Group employs over 300 people and generates sales of around 60 million Swiss francs , of which the garden centers alone generate 40 million (2007 figures).
Business units
Wyss operates a chain of specialist garden centers under the name Wyss GartenHaus with locations in Aarau (since 1991), Bern (since 1990), Biel (since 1992), Buttisholz (since 1986), Emmen LU (since 1976), Muttenz (since 1979) , Oberwil BL (since 1980), Volketswil (since 1984) and Zuchwil (largest location, since 1962). Wyss GartenHaus has around 145 employees, 8 of whom are trainees.
The sales and plant showroom at the Wyss headquarters in Zuchwil, built between 1961 and 1962, has been a cantonal monument since 2007. The two-axis curved concrete shell dome by the Swiss architect Heinz Isler spans around 650 m², but rests on four point supports and is vertically glazed on four sides. It is Isler's first work in this way and is considered the “landmark of Zuchwil”.
Wyss also has three production companies: a tree nursery in Heinrichswil / Hersiwil (16 hectares), a nursery in Biel (8,000 m²) and a nursery in Zuchwil (10,000 m²).
The wholesale division supplies other horticultural production companies and retail companies (e.g. Coop and Jumbo ) with seeds, young plants, substrates and technical articles.
Wyss sells seeds, flower bulbs, tubers and the like under its own brand Select . via its own online shop also on the Internet.
Wyss also operates the largest test and show garden in Switzerland in Zuchwil . There, flower and vegetable seeds, onions and tubers as well as medicinal and kitchen herbs around 2,000 different varieties of the company's own Select brand as well as innovations from various breeders are cultivated and tested for their suitability for use in Switzerland. The facility is open to the public every day, group tours are possible after registration.
The Wyss interior greening business unit, with offices in Zuchwil, Schlieren near Zurich and Muttenz near Basel, is the Swiss market leader in the maintenance of interior greening with more than 100,000 serviced containers for around 750 customers (mostly banks, insurance companies, industrial and commercial companies and public administrations) . In addition, around 50 employees in this business unit plan and implement greening according to various systems (in hydroponics, semi-hydroponics, soil cultivation and substrates of volcanic origin) throughout Switzerland.
Another business unit is the Solothurn-based publishing house Der Gartenbau , publisher of the largest specialist journal of the same name in Swiss commercial horticulture (circulation according to WEMF / SW certification in the base year July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007: 5,317 copies, print run 6,600 Copies). The magazine was founded in 1879 by François Wyss as the Swiss offer journal for horticulture, is now mainly published in German-speaking Switzerland, today 50 times a year, and is the official publication organ of the Swiss Tree Care Federation, Green Professions Switzerland and the Swiss Professional Association for Green Building.
literature
- Adèle Tatarinoff: 100 years of François Wyss Söhne AG, Solothurn: 1858-1958 . Solothurn: Gassmann 1958
Web links
- Start website of Wyss seeds and plants AG with links to the business areas
- "Islerschale" of the Wyss garden center in Zuchwil
- Entry of Wyss Samen und Pflanzen AG in the commercial register of the Canton of Solothurn
- History of the horticultural company Wyss
- History of the magazine "Der Gartenbau" ( Memento from May 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 47 ° 12 '23.8 " N , 7 ° 33' 54.4" E ; CH1903: 609583 / 228416