Building a Business Organically: Johannes Gutmann and Sonnentor

In July 2014, Sonnentor Kräuterhandels GmbH (Sonnentor), one of Europe’s leading companies in the organic herbs and spices business, forecast an increase in its profit from ordinary operations to €2.8 million (US$3.8 million) in fiscal 2013-14 from €2.51 million the previous year. The company expected its revenue to reach €30 million in fiscal 2013-14. Sonnentor attributed its growth to the opening of new stores. With these new stores, Sonnentor had 21 stores in all at the end of June 2014.

Since the late 1980s, Sonnentor had been selling organic quality products under the logo of the laughing sun from the fields of Waldviertel (“Forest Quarter”), a rural region in the North of Austria. The original business idea was to market herbal specialties of the lower Austrian organic farmers nationally as well as internationally (Refer to Exhibit I for Growth of World Organic Food Market). The company did have some teething problems, but over the years, the founder and CEO of Sonnentor, Johannes Gutmann (Gutmann), managed to establish the brand successfully...