Guenthart-Dekor
Niederhasli, Canton Zurich, 1946. Ernst Günthart, a trained confectioner and Swiss-born, opens his first business in a garage. No business plan, no investors – only craft, ambition and the conviction that cakes deserve better decorations than what the market offers at that time. He attends specialist exhibitions at home and abroad, wins customers, develops products, grows. Ten years later he moves the business to Hohentengen am Hochrhein – because the customs conditions from Germany into Switzerland are more favourable than in the opposite direction. Pragmatism as a growth strategy. Eighty years after that garage in Niederhasli, Günthart & Co. KG is one of the internationally leading companies in the confectionery décor industry: around 900 employees, five countries, production sites in Thailand and Germany, IFS-certified, present on all continents. The range includes cake decorations in chocolate, sugar and marzipan, candles for every occasion, toppers, wafer sheets, scatter decorations and gift articles. What has remained is the starting point: the conviction that every celebration deserves the decoration that does it justice. At miniSchoggi, a selection of Günthart products is available.
Showing 1-6 of 6 item(s)
Günthart – Eighty Years of Cake Decoration. A Garage in Niederhasli. And the Long Road in Between.
There are business foundations that arise at a moment when everything is right: the market, the capital, the connections. And there are foundations that have none of that – only a person with an idea and the will to realise it. Ernst Günthart belongs to the second category. In 1946, in the post-war period, without start-up capital and without an established network, he opens a business for cake decorations in Niederhasli. The location is a garage. The workforce: himself.
What drives him is craft conviction. As a trained confectioner, Günthart knows what a well-decorated cake can achieve – and what is missing from the market at the time. He develops products that enable bakeries and confectioneries to achieve a decoration quality that they would have neither the time nor the materials to produce themselves. And he goes where his customers are: to specialist exhibitions at home and abroad, to the IBA in Düsseldorf in 1953, which brings him new inspirations and contacts.
Hohentengen, Taiwan, Thailand – a Company Grows Across Borders
In 1956, the move to Hohentengen am Hochrhein is not a departure from Switzerland but a business decision: customs duties from Germany into Switzerland are at that time significantly lower than in the opposite direction. The production site changes, the home market remains. Günthart continues to supply Swiss bakeries and confectioneries – while simultaneously opening up the German and European market systematically. Hohentengen continues to produce sugar decorations and wafer sheets to this day.
1980 brings the next step: a branch is opened in Taipei, Taiwan, where sugar and marzipan flowers are crafted by hand. Relocating handcraft production to countries with different wage structures enables Günthart to expand the range without making prices untenable for end customers. In 1981, the company acquires the site of a disused sawmill in Hohentengen – 35,000 square metres that continue to house the company's headquarters to this day. Production today takes place in four plants in Thailand and Germany. What began in 1946 as a one-man operation in a garage now has an infrastructure that supplies the world market.
Stefan Günthart and the Expansion into Gift Articles
In 1978, Stefan Günthart, the founder's younger brother, joins the family business and takes over the graphics area. His ideas structurally change the company: alongside cake decorations, Günthart now also offers gift articles. Stefan Günthart develops the idea of attaching wooden figures to chocolate gift boxes – at the time an innovation that proves to be a bestseller and lays the foundation for the gift article area. He remains the creative head of the company to this day. The combination of cake decorations and gift articles is today one of Günthart's strengths: bakeries and confectioneries can extend their range with gifts that thematically complement their cake decorations – from birthdays through weddings to seasonal occasions.
Quality Standards – IFS, No Azo Dyes, Palm Oil-Free
Günthart is IFS-certified – under the International Featured Standards, one of the most stringent food safety and quality standards for manufacturers supplying bakeries, confectioneries and food retail. IFS certification means regular external audits, documented quality assurance processes and compliance with product safety standards that go beyond legal minimum requirements.
In addition, Günthart consistently avoids azo dyes – synthetic colourings that, while permitted in the EU, require labelling and have been linked to hyperactivity in children. All products are being reformulated step by step to be palm oil-free. Vegan products such as royal icing are already in the range. These decisions are not regulatory requirements but the result of a product philosophy that consistently thinks beyond minimum standards – and that is directly relevant for bakeries and confectioneries that apply their own quality standards to ingredients.
The Range – Decoration for Every Occasion, Every Size, Every Season
The Günthart range for cake decoration is both broad and deep. Cake candles in various sizes, shapes and versions – from classic birthday candles through number candles to sparkler candles and special occasion candles – form a core range that accompanies every bakery and household throughout the year. Candle quality is not trivial: even burning without dripping, a stable flame, the right length for cakes of various heights – these parameters determine whether a candle moment on the cake succeeds or not.
Toppers for cakes and cupcakes in various motifs, materials and occasions enable quick and effective decoration without laborious handwork. Wafer sheets, scatter decorations, sugar figures, marzipan roses as well as chocolate and marzipan decorations complete the area of edible cake decorations. The range is seasonally structured and expanded annually with new designs – always with the same fundamental ambition: simple application, professional result, reliable quality.
Product Range at a Glance
Cake candles & occasion candles · Cake toppers & cupcake toppers · Wafer sheets · Scatter decorations · Sugar figures · Chocolate & marzipan decorations
Günthart at miniSchoggi
A well-decorated cake needs more than fondant and cutters. It needs candles that burn as they should – evenly, without dripping, at the right height for the cake. Toppers that suit the occasion and sit on the cake without tipping. Decorations that look as though hours were spent on them – even when placed in minutes.
miniSchoggi carries Günthart because the range stands for precisely this reliability. More than eighty years of experience in cake decoration is not an abstract quality characteristic – it shows in products that are used daily in bakeries and confectioneries worldwide and cannot be allowed to fail. The Günthart range available at miniSchoggi includes candles and toppers for various occasions and is continuously expanded – in line with what miniSchoggi customers need when baking, decorating and celebrating.
Since 1946. From a garage in Niederhasli. Today in Hohentengen. Günthart.