Building a Business Organically: Johannes Gutmann and Sonnentor

The story of Sonnentor dates back to early 1988 when Johannes Gutmann was told by his employer that he was no longer required. What bothered him the most was that he was not given a chance to develop the business of selling agricultural specialty crops.

Gutmann, born in 1965 in Zwettl in the Waldviertel region in Austria, was the youngest of five children of a peasant family. After leaving school at the Business Academy in Zwettl, he moved to Vienna to study Business Studies. However, he soon realized his passion for nature and herbs and went back home...