
Grossdietwil LU – The Andermatt Group celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. Founded as Andermatt Biocontrol, the company from the canton of Lucerne is active worldwide in biological crop protection. It has over 500 employees and 24 subsidiaries around the world.
Since its foundation in 1988, the Andermatt Group, based in Grossdietwil, Switzerland, has created a worldwide network to distribute its innovative biological crop protection solutions. Nine manufacturing companies were integrated. Today, Andermatt Biocontrol, Andermatt BioVet and Andermatt Biogarten, including the 24 subsidiaries, employ a total of 500 people, around 220 of them in Switzerland.
“The Grossdietwil site is important,” the “Willisauer Bote” quotes CEO Daniel Zingg in an article. “In Switzerland, we enjoy good economic conditions and can thus maintain our quality, which is an important success factor internationally.” The site has been undergoing expansion for a year and a half as part of a 15-million project.
The founding couple, Dr. Isabel and Dr. Martin Andermatt, now serve on the Board of Directors, she as an assessor and he strategically. Today the company is owned by them and their employees. It intends to retain its independence from large corporations and investors in the future.
The first product, Madex, was approved at the end of 1987; it is based on highly selective granulose viruses against codling moth. This was followed by numerous proprietary products based on viruses, fungi and nematodes. The company also invested in the mass production of beneficial insects. Today, Andermatt Biocontrol Suisse produces more than a dozen insect virus products, “more than any other producer,” the company says in its corporate biography.
“Chemistry in crop protection is the wrong approach,” Martin Andermatt tells the paper. “Healthy food from a healthy environment, that has always been our vision.” ce/mm