1984 to 1991: How it all started

«Everything started with a small question by Ernst Moser. It was about special bread rolls for a fast food chain that wanted to enter the Swiss market. It was 1984. As I am curious, I immediately accepted. So I went to Denver (USA) for a two-month training. I learned from professional bakers how these so-called buns are made. It was a unforgettable time. In addition to the intensive trainings, we had time for skiing, fishing, and we could visit a unique mountain gold mine, including a casino. Back to Switzerland, we started to produce the first Swiss-made buns. At the beginning, we produced around 3,600 buns a day in the Mischke & Moser bakery in Baden. As McDonald’s grew rapidly, it soon became clear, that we needed a location to build a larger bakery. We found what we were looking for in Zuchwil. The construction of Fortisa was completed in 1991 and we started production in September 1991.»

1992 to 2012: further development

During my time at Fortisa, I had the opportunity to have various jobs and I had a lot experiences. I got to know different management styles of my superiors. Some of them were pleasant, others a little less. In 1995, we introduced two-shift operation and rebuilt the proofer and the oven to reach more capacity. I remember that like it was yesterday. After the renovation, the oven stopped working. Nobody knew why. Until I finally discovered the mistake: The oven motor was attached upside down. My years of professional experience helped me a lot. Later we were a little concerned about what would happen on the Millennium Night. But everything went well and we started 2000 without any problems.»

2013 to today: big projects

In 2013 I was introduced to the new CEO Vincent Lebet. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the pleasure of working with Vincent for a long time as I retired in January 2016. Since then I've been enjoying my new phase of life. Vincent has achieved great things with the Fortisa 2020 project and continues to push Fortisa ahead. I was quite skeptical about this huge project, because this was not "just" about an oven or proofer. No, it was a complete renewal and automatization of the whole machineries.

And all this while production was running - a kind of “open heart surgery”. It was a great pleasure and honor for me to follow the construction and renovation on the site, day by day.

Today I am very proud of what Fortisa achieved in the past few months. Well, the new goods lift should be a little faster. But joking aside: Fortisa was an important part of my life and will always be.»