The Hilcona Taste Factory production plant is surrounded by the imposing mountains of Graubünden. However, the employees are not distracted from their mission of indulgence by the spectacular scenery that surrounds the village of Landquart.
They produce pasta, vegetarian products and the local specialty capuns with care - and often with their own hands. These are chard leaves filled with a meat or vegetable dough."We are all better eaters here"
06.09.2019
Pasta that tastes like it was made by an Italian nonna. Vegetarian convenience products that fuel the trend towards reduced meat consumption. The Hilcona Taste Factory in Landquart is the place to go for contemporary food with a handcrafted character.
"We see ourselves as a manufactory that produces high-quality products in small quantities and with a lot of manual work," explains plant manager Sinuhe Hofstetter. "As the smallest company within the Hilcona Group, we are very flexible and dynamic." Vegetarian convenience products are a booming area at the Hilcona Taste Factory. While tofu is already more of a classic here, the company is still in the discovery phase when it comes to producing hummus - the chickpea spread originating from Arabic cuisine.
"With new trend products like this, we benefit from the fact that we produce in small batches," reports Sinuhe Hofstetter. "This allows us to keep bringing new products onto the market and then see what goes down well with customers."The plant-based "Green Mountain Burger" is a baby of the location that can't complain about a lack of popularity. Now the next big premiere is in the pipeline for "The Green Mountain" brand: In October, the first meat alternative based on meatloaf will be launched on the market - bakeable, vegan and even lower in calories than its role model.
As usual in the Bell Food Group, quality is also a top priority in Landquart. Among other things, many of the products made here are organic. Take the tofu, for example: the soybeans from which it is made are certified organic and come one hundred percent from Switzerland - so they also have short transportation routes.Although the Hilcona Taste Factory has only been operating under this name for just over a year and a half, its roots go back to 1841, when one of the first pasta factories in Switzerland was founded in Chur. This gave rise to Frostag Food-Centrum AG, which set up a production facility for fresh and frozen products at its current location in Landquart in 1998. It has belonged to Hilcona since 2017 and has been successively expanded into a competence center for pasta and veggie products.
Today, 130 to 150 employees work in the production area, which now covers around 5,000 square meters, depending on the season.Sinuhe Hofstetter always has an open ear for her suggestions. "We shape our success together here. After all, we are all better eaters," says the plant manager.
Four of the nine production lines are dedicated to pasta, which is produced here in semi-dry, pasteurized, floured and - especially for food service customers - deep-frozen versions. The other five lines are used for convenience products, which now make up more than half of the Hilcona Taste Factory range.And what happens if a product is too popular with customers? Then Landquart transfers production to another location. One example of this is "Pasta Traditionale": thanks to its success, some varieties have been produced in Schaan since the beginning of the year - in four to five times the quantity per hour.